


Dear Julia

by Modest_K



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Blood and Gore, Dark, Dark Comedy, Death, Drug Use, F/M, Humor, Murder, Next Generation, Swearing, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:47:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 39,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26700064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Modest_K/pseuds/Modest_K
Summary: Dear Julia,I’m going to die. And I don’t mean that in a dramatic-teenager-my-life-is-over type of way, I mean they are actually going to kill me. I’m currently wandless, sealed inside the castle, and hiding for my bloody life. Anyways, doing well otherwise. Albus Potter is here, and he is fit, so I suppose that’s a plus.Okay, I best be off- murderers after me and all.Your loving sister,MikaA dark comedy about a twisted, blood-soaked holiday break complete with poorly timed flirting, inconvenient snogging, and annoying interruptions.
Relationships: Albus Severus Potter/Original Female Character(s), Louis Weasley/Original Female Character(s), Scorpius Malfoy/Rose Weasley
Comments: 32
Kudos: 19





	1. Prologue

**A/N: Hi everyone. Just as a warning for anyone who didn't check the tags, this story will have blood, swearing, murder, sex, and references to drugs. Just so you know what you're getting into.**

**I love me a dark comedy.** **Enjoy the inner workings of my somewhat twisted mind.**

* * *

_**December** _

I paced around the room frantically, trying to come up with a plan. 

_Alright, Mika, think. There are at least six psychopaths out there, and they’ve all proven they’re capable of murder. You have no wand, no tricks, and no real fighting ability. What do you do?_

_Run like hell?_

_Can’t do that._

_Why the fuck not?_

_They’ve got Al._

_Shit. This is why I don’t date._

I ran my hands through my hair in frustration, tugging through the tangles. 

_I could really use some dry shampoo right now, honestly._

My inner thoughts were interrupted when I heard footsteps outside the empty classroom. Cursing inwardly, I threw the cloak over my head and moved to the corner of the room. 

The door opened, and two people stepped inside. 

“I’m telling you, I heard something over here,” one of them said. I scowled as I realized who it was. 

_Traitor,_ I thought, seeing his Gryffindor tie. _What an arse._

“Potter was caught on the other side of the castle,” Arse #2 said. My heart skipped a beat at the name. “If they were together, I doubt she’d have made it all the way here without getting caught.” He was swinging a machete around in his right hand- how the hell did he sneak a _machete_ into Hogwarts, anyway?

“I heard s _omething._ ”

“You think it was her?”

Arse #1 shrugged. “Not sure. Could be someone else, to be fair. We can’t be sure we got everyone.”

“Are we meeting back at the library to deal with Potter or do we go up to the Astronomy Tower with the others?” Arse #2 asked. _Library. Al’s in the library._

“I think we go upstairs,” the first one replied. “Cook has Potter, he doesn’t need our help. Hawke couldn’t take Cook on her best day.”

I watched the two tall blokes open cupboards and check under desks. “No one’s in here,” Arse #1 shrugged eventually. 

“Told you,” his friend rolled his eyes. Now that they were a little closer, I noticed the blood that had dried over the blade of his machete. He ran a finger down the blade, a trace of blood evidently getting on his hand, because he quickly wiped it off on his robes. 

_Now that’s just unsanitary, and definitely going to stain._

“What time do we need to meet back up with the others?” Arse #1 asked. 

“Apparently we need to be done with everything by sunrise,” Arse #2 said. “So we have about eight hours to go.”

“Shit. I need some coffee or something.”

“Same. I don’t know how Cook has been so energetic about all this,” the other frowned. 

“It’s called coke energy,” Arse #1 snorted. 

“That’s probably true. Do you reckon he’d share?” Arse #2 looked hopeful.

“Doubt it,” Arse #1 said as they headed for the door. “He’s possessive. He almost lit me on fire for trying to kill Jones before he could.”

His mate laughed, and started to say something back, but by then their voices were muffled by the wall, as they’d turned the corner and were out in the corridor. 

I listened for a few more moments as their voices and footsteps faded the further they got down the hallway. 

Once I felt satisfied they were gone, I pulled the cloak off and went to sit on one of the desks. I needed to get my head on straight. 

_Al is in the library._ That was great to know, but what was I supposed to do about it? He was probably tied up, _literally_ , with a round-the-bend-psycho-dickhead holding him hostage. Those guys were right- I couldn’t take Simon Cook. He had at least a foot of height on me, and probably a good eighty pounds of extra muscle. 

And, as I’d witnessed firsthand, he could snap an arm like a fucking toothpick. 

_Think, Mika_ , I thought harshly. _You don’t have time to dick around in here all night._

I reopened my tiny backpack, evaluating what was left of the contents. I had a single dungbomb, a chocolate frog, one of those wizard’s whoopie cushions that blasted people off of them, and the lighter I’d nicked from Glover earlier. 

Aside from the chocolate frog, which I would definitely eat later, they were all pretty potentially helpful, to an extent, but I wasn’t sure how I’d get myself into a position to use them at all. 

I did have the cloak. But if the library doors were _shut_ , then I’d have no chance at getting inside without a distraction of some sort. None of these would work for that. 

Unless…

I grimaced when I realized my only remaining options. 

I threw my pack back on and pulled the cloak over myself once again. _Deep breaths, Mika_ , I told myself. _Time to fuck some shit up._

I took a few more breaths, bouncing in place a little to pump myself up. I slapped my arms and legs a little too, the way swimmers do before races. I may have been averse to hard drugs, but I needed to match Cook’s aforementioned “coke energy” if I was going to survive this. 

_Alright_ , I sighed. _Let’s do this._

First, I took my shoes off and stuffed them into my bag. The heels were making my footsteps far too easy to hear, hence the pricks finding me earlier after my pacing. 

I set off down the hallway, a little cautiously since the two arses had gone this same direction. I was pretty sure they’d be going down to the kitchens, since they’d mentioned wanting coffee. The library was on the main floor, so as long as they stayed preoccupied down in the basement, I could eliminate those two as threats. Glover was obviously out of the picture. 

_Shit. Who else is in on all this, though?_

I shook the thoughts out of my head. I’d just overheard them mention that Cook would be the only one guarding Albus. The thought was sort of eerie- it was probably a trap. In fact, I felt near certain that it’d be a trap. But I couldn’t very well _abandon_ Albus Potter. 

My internal panic continued all along my walk downstairs. If the plan didn’t work, I would more than likely be dead within the next twenty minutes. 

And if it did work, the best case scenario was that Albus and I would spend the next eight hours running for our lives. 

_Don’t panic, Mika,_ I told myself again. _You got this. Think positive thoughts. Puppies. Marshmallows. Roller coasters. Albus Potter, shirtless, on a broom. Simon Cook’s head on a spike._

I moved quickly, my socks masking the sound of my footsteps despite the fact that I was almost running. 

After a few more flights of stairs, I reached the library corridor. I paused, looking around, and trying to listen for voices or any signs of someone approaching. I heard nothing. 

_Shit. Okay. Here goes._

I took the chocolate frog out of my backpack as quietly as possible before unwrapping it and placing the frog down on the floor, just outside the Invisibility Cloak. 

I stepped back and waited for it to start hopping and croaking. 

It just sat there. 

“Fucking _move_ ,” I hissed at it. Nothing. Not even a tinny _ribbit._

_Are you fucking kidding me, the one time my stupid frog doesn’t try to get away-_

I broke off from my internal fuming with a heavy sigh, pressing my hands to the sides of my head. 

I had a backup plan. It was just one that I really, _really_ didn’t want to have to resort to. Sadly, I pulled my shoes out of my pack. My lovely, dark, heeled ankle boots that I loved so damned much. 

I hugged them close for a second. _Forgive me, my babies._

And then, gathering up the cloak enough to reach my arm out, I chucked them at the wall on the far end of the corridor, as hard as possible, one by one. 

In the quiet hall, the sound seemed to echo about the walls after each _thud._

I had just pulled my arm back under the cloak when the library door was thrown open. I turned with wide eyes, almost screaming before I remembered I was invisible. 

Simon Cook was a _massive_ bloke, nearly six and a half feet tall. His arms were each fucking _trees_ , and I found myself wondering why he’d never played Quidditch. He’d have made for one hell of a Beater. 

Blood still stained his white button-up shirt, and his eyes were underlined by dark circles. He looked bloody _scary_. 

Cook stormed down the hall toward the wall at which I’d thrown my shoes, and I took the opportunity to sneak past him into the library. As he investigated, I pulled out the whoopie cushion and placed it at the foot of the door just inside, pulling the entrance way’s rug over to cover it up a bit. It stuck out a bit, but someone as tall as he was probably wouldn’t notice it. 

Turning around, I scanned the area quickly. I didn’t see Albus off the bat, and ran forward, darting down the halls. 

Finally, I found him. He was tied up in a chair near the back of one of the halls of book stacks. My stomach lurches a little at the sight of him- the shadows under his eyes made the ones on Cook look bright, and the corner of his lip was coated in dried blood. His messy dark hair was tousled even more than usual, a few strands hanging down his forehead.

 _Is it sick to think he looks_ hot _right now?_

I crept up to him quickly yet quietly. He was looking down the next nearest hall curiously, craning his neck. 

I pulled the cloak off enough to show my face. “Al!” I whisper-shouted.

He jumped, sucking in a breath. “Fucking _hell_ , Mika, you scared me.”

“Are you alright?” I demanded in a whisper. 

He nodded. “I’m fine. Get out of here though,” he whispered back, his eyebrows drawn together. “They know I was with someone- they have me here as _bait_.”

“Well, I’m getting you out anyway,” I whispered back urgently. “He’ll be back any second, so shush.”

The ropes they’d used on him were _thick_ , and I couldn’t get them untied. I pulled the lighter out of my pocket. “This might get warm,” I warned. “Hold still.”

“Mika,” Albus said quietly. “I need to tell you something.”

“It’ll have to wait,” I said as I held the small flame to the ropes. It burned them, but it was working far slower than I would have liked. 

“You’re going to want to hear it,” he said, looking worried. 

“Not now, Al,” I shook my head. “Come on, rope, burn faster.”

“ _Mika,_ ” he insisted. 

I glared at him. “Would you shut it and let me save you?” To my relief, the rope burned away from his wrist. I quickly moved to the other side. 

He looked frustrated. “You need to know-”

His words were cut off as we heard the distinct sound of shouting coming from not too far away, probably from just outside the library.

“Shit,” I cursed, waving the flame desperately. It was so close, just hanging by threads. 

“Fuck it,” Albus muttered, and drew his arm up aggressively. He pulled through a few of the threads, though it must have hurt, because he hissed slightly. Still, this was life-or-death, so he pulled again, and then his arm was free. He went to work on one of the ropes around his left leg while I started burning away the one on the right. 

“You know, any other day I would have loved to have you kneeling in front of me while I sit tied up in a chair,” he mused. 

I resisted the urge to punch him in the dick, instead pulling at the rope as more strands gave away under the fire. 

A large _bang_ startled us both. 

“Oh gods, that’s the whoopie cushion,” I whispered sharply, pulling at the ropes persistently. 

“ _Whoopie cushion?_ ”

“No time,” I said frantically. He was nearly free, so close now. 

He’d gotten the knot on his left side undone. _One more, just one more._

“Hey Mika,” came a voice from behind me. 

My shoulders tensed. I’d almost anticipated being caught, but the voice that called my name so _casually_ wasn’t from Simon Cook. 

I turned around reluctantly. My stomach dropped.

* * *

**A/N: Okay, it was short, I know. It was just a prologue, the rest will be full-length chapters. I realize this story will likely get significantly less attention that my other next-gen ones, but the idea was too intriguing to not write out. I'm just having some fun with it. I'm a few chapters in writing-wise, so first few updates will be quick! Let me know what you think.**

**If you're confused as to what's happening, and full of questions, good. ;) The first few chapters will sort of intro how they wind up in this situation and probably answer any questions you have.**

**Feel free to leave a review!**

**-K**

**P.S. I'm kind of still getting used to formatting on AO3, I usually just post at HPFF. I'll get better.**

**_Disclaimer: Anything you recognize isn't mine, it's all JK Rowling._ **


	2. September/October

**A/N: No violence or craziness in this one, just intro stuff. Next chapter is when shit starts hitting the proverbial fan.**

* * *

_**September** _

_Dear Julia,_

_I’ve been back at Hogwarts for exactly seven days now. Honestly, I thought Seventh Year would be much worse. I mean I know it’s only been one week, but we’ve been given a pretty thorough description of what would be on N.E.W.T.s, and all I can think is that I got this. Of course, I’ve had you teaching me shit ahead of my years since I was eleven, so I suppose I owe you some sort of thanks. _

_I suppose._

_Anyway, there hasn’t been much else of interest. Scorpius is still dating Rose Weasley, which has been weird. I mean don’t get me wrong, I like Rose, she’s been a cool roommate for years, I just don’t know her very well. I trust Scor’s judgement, though. Speaking of Weasleys, I found out Flik has been screwing around with Louis Weasley since about halfway through summer! I can’t believe she never told me. Well, I guess I get why she wouldn’t, all things considered, but it’s still weird._

_I better get going now- I told the others I’d meet them for a picnic on the grounds. I’ll write again soon!_

_All my love,_

_Mika_

* * *

After finishing my letter, I headed outside to a spot about halfway between the castle and Hagrid's hut. A picnic blanket, on which sat four students, awaited me. 

“Did you shitheads start without me?” I demanded as a loving greeting, dropping next to Felicity “Flik” Corner, my best friend since First Year. 

“Sorry Mika, we needed the head start,” Scorpius Malfoy smirked. “You have a tendency to inhale your food.”

“That’s rich coming from you,” I scowled, reaching forward for the basket of food. “Ooo what do we have here?”

“I made _cookies_ ,” Lucy Weasley informed me with a wide smile. “The house elves were a little wary about letting me use the kitchen, but I think that was mostly just because Fred once blew up an oven, and now they’re sort of scared of any relations of his.”

“As they should be,” Trevor Spinnet laughed, throwing an arm around her lovingly. 

She pouted. “No cookies for you.”

I laughed at that. “I’ll take his share, Luce, I fear no Weasley.”

“Well _that’s_ just foolish,” she laughed. “Have you not met Dom? Or even Lily, sometimes?”

“I can’t say I’ve actually experienced an angry Lily,” I said, tilting my head in thought. “Dom, however… yeah, I remember Dom’s rage quite well.” I shuddered slightly. “Fair point.”

“Dom is terrifying,” Flik muttered. I suspected she’d had to deal with some Dominique Weasley run-ins over the summer since she’d begun seeing Louis. 

“Rose can be scary,” Scorpius added, frowning. “But I suspect that’s only because she’s my girlfriend.”

“It’s definitely only because she’s your girlfriend,” Flik agreed, snorting. 

“I don’t know,” Lucy said thoughtfully. “She’s pretty scary come exam time.”

“Is there just something in your genes, Luce?” Trevor grinned at his girlfriend. 

She shrugged. “Maybe it comes with the red hair. The Potter _boys_ aren’t scary.”

I made a face at that. “Easy for you to say. You didn’t have one as your Quidditch captain for four years.”

Flik laughed. “How many times did I find you _crawling_ back to the tower after practices?”

“It was worth it,” I said arrogantly. “We beat Scor over here into the dirt.”

“You just wait for this fucking year to start,” the blonde in question growled. “You lost some of your best players.”

I had no retort for him. It was true; Gryffindor had lost both its Beaters (Fred Weasley and Sven Corner, Flik’s brother) and one of its Chasers (James). All we had left now were Lily Potter and one of my roommates, Josette, as our Chasers, myself as Seeker, and Luke Finnegan as our Keeper. 

The worst part was that Luke was an _atrocious_ captain. 

“I’ll be honest, our chances for the cup are… not ideal,” I said slowly. “But I can still beat _you_ to the snitch, easily.”

Scorpius narrowed his eyes at me. 

“Excuse me, mates, but what are the rules, here?” Trevor demanded. “No Quidditch talk at our picnics!”

“Sorry,” Scor and I muttered. Though I threw in a quickly mumbled, “wanker” at the end, only to receive a glare from the aforementioned wanker. 

Our little group was an odd one. We’d maintained a friendship since Third Year, when the five of us had been assigned together for a term-long Muggle Studies project. These days, Hogwarts was trying to blend house interactions as much as possible, so there’d been students from all the houses in that class. 

Flik and I were both Gryffindors, our other three roommates all being perfectly pleasant, but just never really close to us. Lucy was a Hufflepuff, Trevor a Ravenclaw, and Scorpius was in Slytherin. 

Somehow, despite everyone having their own friends from their own houses, and a wide variety of different interests, we’d kept up our weird, ragtag group all the way up to Seventh Year. At some point during the year prior, Lucy and Trevor had begun a relationship, but it hadn’t impacted the rest of us much. 

“Those rules ought to be updated anyway,” Scorpius frowned after a beat. “Trevor and Luce get to love it up at these ruddy picnics, shouldn't we get to bring in guests?”

“Why, so you and Flik could bring your respective Weasleys and leave me as a seventh wheel?” I raised an eyebrow at him. 

He winced. “Sorry. I forgot.”

“I guess we just have to find Mika a date then,” Flik smirked. 

“These aren’t Slug Club meetings, Flik, we don’t need _dates_ ,” I protested, exasperated. Bloody pushy friends. I bit at my sandwich a little halfheartedly. 

“Come on, Mika, let us set you up!” Lucy pleaded. 

“For what it’s worth,” Trevor shrugged, “I’m pretty sure _all_ of my dormmates are interested. Aside from Cook, maybe, but that’s just because he has a girlfriend.” 

I scowled. “I’ve already dated one of them, and that was a nightmare if you recall.”

Trevor smiled sheepishly. “That was… not ideal, I admit. The other three are nice blokes, though. More or less.”

“I could ask mine, too,” Scorpius supplied. 

“No Slytherins for Mika,” Flik countered. “You’re a gloomy lot.”

“Not true!” Scorpius exclaimed. “We’re _fun_. I’m fun!”

“Keep trying to convince yourself, mate,” I winked. 

“It’s true,” he snapped, throwing the crust of his bread at me. It bounced off my face and fell into my lap, so I picked it up and ate it. “I’m fun, Zabini’s cool, Al’s _great_ , and Goldstein’s a laugh.”

“Don’t they _all_ have girlfriends, currently?” Lucy questioned, her eyebrows drawn together. 

Scorpius frowned. “Er- right. Forgot about that.”

Flik snorted. “Just _details_ to Scorpius.” He simply shrugged. 

“Alright, enough about my nonexistent dating life,” I whined. “I just want to eat food and gossip about people that aren’t me, if you don’t mind.”

Lucy laughed. “Well, we could talk about-”

Whatever gossip Lucy was ready to bring up was cut off by a voice calling out, “Oi!”

We all glanced over at the direction of the shout, and I stifled a groan. Rose and Louis Weasley were heading toward us, wearing friendly smiles. 

I turned on my friends with an accusatory glare. 

“I swear I didn’t invite him,” Flik held her hands up innocently. 

“I might have mentioned to Rose where I’d be,” Scorpius admitted. “But I didn’t invite her- she and Louis probably just want to say hi.”

“Figures,” I snorted, throwing my food down and standing from the blanket. “I’ll leave you lot to your triple date.”

“Mika,” Lucy frowned. “Don’t go.”

“We behave all the time,” Trevor reasoned, gesturing to himself and Lucy. “These two can surely keep their hands to themselves for a meal.”

I smiled at them. “Honestly, it’s not a major deal. We’ll have more picnics, won’t we?”

Scorpius still looked guilty, Lucy and Trevor both looking a little apprehensive. Flik looked hopeful, though I genuinely couldn’t guess at what outcome she was hoping for- she’d been a little scattered since she’d started seeing Louis. 

“Mika,” Scorpius started, but Rose and Louis had arrived by then. 

“Alright lads and ladies?” Louis greeted cheerfully, dropping beside Flik and throwing an arm around her. She looked down with a blush, avoiding my eyes. 

I shot Scorpius a knowing look as Rose joined him by his side too, though she looked a lot more hesitant. “I have a lot of homework to work on anyway,” I informed them. “I’ll be heading out now.”

“We’ve been back at school a week,” Lucy protested. “How much homework could you have?”

“Plenty,” I shrugged. I sent them all an easy smile to alleviate their guilt. “I’ll see you all later!”

“Bye Mika,” Flik smiled sadly at me, the others all chiming in goodbyes of their own. 

I departed from the picnic that I’d scarcely joined in the first place as casually as I could manage. I opted to make for the kitchens- I’d barely eaten, after all. 

Once inside the castle, I allowed my pace to slow to a trudge, to match the sullen mood that’d taken over the moment I’d spotted the Weasleys coming to join the picnic. 

It wasn’t that I had anything against either of them- in fact I rather _liked_ them both- but I hated being the only single person in a sea of relationships. Trevor and Lucy revolved around each other like the moon around the earth, Flik and Louis were just disgustingly handsy, and Scorpius turned into a pathetic, mushy prat every time he was with Rose. 

There’s only so much a single girl can take, really. 

I tickled the pear when I reached the familiar fruit portrait, and as always, the door handle appeared for me. I opened it slowly, my mood making every movement dragged out and sluggish. 

I was probably being overly dramatic to be so sulky, but hey, I was hungry. In any case, my slowness in opening the door meant that the two people already inside didn’t actually hear me coming, and a couple seconds later, I heard their voices. 

“-but you’re being unreasonable,” came a girl’s voice. 

“How the _fuck_ am I being unreasonable?” That one was a guy. 

“Two years? You’re willing to throw away two years because of one blip?” From the doorway I could see them: the girl was Melanie Winters. 

“One _blip?_ ” That would be Albus Potter. “A _blip?_ For fuck’s sake, Mel, _you fucked another bloke_.”

This was _not_ a conversation I wanted or meant to overhear. I didn’t know what to do- they hadn’t heard me come in. 

“I was drunk, Al,” Melanie pleaded. “I was drunk, and it was stupid, but shit, I feel awful!”

 _Do I clear my throat?_ I thought. _Pretend to trip and fall? Sing something?_

“You bloody _should_ feel awful!” Albus all but yelled back. 

_Shit, shit, shit, I shouldn’t be here for this._

“Al-” Melanie started, but whatever plea she had prepared, it was cut off as I opted to simply loudly close the door behind me. 

Both heads whipped around to see me standing awkwardly at the doorway. “Oh- er- don’t mind me,” I said lamely, beet red. “Just getting some food.”

“How much of that did you just hear?” Melanie frowned at me. 

“Can you give us a minute?” Albus asked me before I could answer her. “We’re sort of in the middle of something.”

“W-well,” I stammered. “Here’s the thing, I’m kind of- not kind of, actually- I’m _very_ hungry.”

They both stared at me, evidently waiting to say more. I wasn’t sure what else there was to say, personally. 

_The awkwardness is palpable. Merlin kill me now._

“Right,” Albus said, looking confused. “Well, we’re in the midst of a breakup, so if you could just… wait a few minutes?”

“Break up?” Melanie repeated, looking back to Albus with wide eyes. I almost felt bad for her to an extent, she looked crushed. Although it sounded like she’d been _cheating_ on him, so I couldn’t really manage much sympathy. “Al, come on, you can’t mean-”

“I can, actually,” he cut her off, looking frustrated and tired of the conversation. “We’re done, Melanie.”

She gaped at him. “Albus…”

He just shook his head, stepping away from her attempt to reach out to him.

Melanie stared at him for a few more moments, visibly shaken. Then, abruptly, she turned and nearly ran out of the kitchens, brushing past me on her way out. 

The door slammed behind her with a _thud,_ leaving me alone with Albus Potter and a bunch of house elves. 

I cleared my throat. “Well, that was… horrible.”

Albus didn’t look at me, instead dropping into a chair and dropping his face into his hands. I watched him uncomfortably, at a thorough loss as to what to do with myself. I awkwardly made my way forward a bit, just enough to get closer to the elves. 

“Miss Hawke?” One of them, Ella, asked me with a large smile. “Can I get you some cereal, Miss Hawke?”

I beamed at her, relieved. “Ella, you’re a lifesaver. That would be lovely, thank you.”

She nodded a bunch, running off to procure me a bowl. 

I turned back toward Albus, who was now sat face-down at his table. I couldn’t very well sit _with_ him, for Circe’s sake, I barely knew him. I opted for a table a few meters away, sitting with my back to him to give him some privacy- although, to be fair, it was probably a little late for that. 

Ella brought me a bowl of Cheerios a moment later- it was my usual request. I loved cereal, at all times of day. “Thank you, Ella, you’re the best,” I smiled at her. 

Ella looked flustered. “No trouble for Ella, Miss Hawke, never any trouble.”

She shuffled off to return to working with the others, leaving me alone with my cereal and my blatant avoidance of looking behind me.

The only sounds in the kitchens were the house elves moving about, cleaning and preparing whatever meal would be served at dinner that evening, in addition to the occasional clang of my spoon against my bowl. I was working _very_ hard to avoid slurping the milk. That’d be downright embarrassing in the same room as Albus Potter. 

Having been engrossed with my own thoughts, I was startled when he suddenly spoke. “Cereal? In the afternoon?”

I glanced back, my face heating up as I met his eyes. “Oh- well, yeah. I didn’t eat lunch, and I was hungry, so I came here for some cereal.”

“Probably shouldn’t have skipped lunch,” he commented. His chin was resting on his folded arms atop the table. I wasn’t entirely sure how to treat him; his eyes were a little red, like he’d been near tears, and now his expression was just blank. 

I went for a shrug. “Well, I was supposed to have lunch outside with some others, but it- it got cancelled.”

His eyebrows furrowed. “The picnic got cancelled? Why?”

I tilted my head a little. “You know about the picnics?”

He sat up, looking just slightly less lifeless. “Well yeah,” he said like it was obvious. “My best mate and my cousin go to those.”

To be honest, I’m not sure why I hadn’t realized that myself. “Oh right,” I said stupidly.

“Who cancelled it?” he asked. “Everyone alright?”

 _Shit,_ I thought. _Someone will tell him it wasn’t cancelled and he’ll think I’m a right nutter._

“Alright, so _cancelled_ might have been a bit of a stretch,” I admitted, wincing slightly. 

His features shifted slightly, and he looked downright confused. “Okay…”

I grimaced. Complaining about my own problems to someone who had just broken up with his girlfriend of two years because she’d cheated on him made me feel like a bitch. “Well I was at the picnic, like usual, and your cousins- Rose and Louis- came down to join. And so I left.”

Albus looked defensive. “What’s wrong with Rose and Louis?” 

I shook my head quickly, my arms moving with me so quickly that I accidentally knocked over my cereal. “ _Shit_ ,” I cursed. I cast a quick charm to clean it up before turning back to Albus. “Nothing’s wrong with them, I like them,” I assured him. “It’s just that Lucy and Trevor are dating, and Scor and Rose, and now Flik and Louis…” I trailed off, unsure of how to finish the sentence. 

A look of understanding crossed his face. “I see. Seven’s a crowd, then?”

I smiled sadly. “Afraid so.”

“Sorry.”

I snorted. “ _You’re_ sorry? I just witnessed your breakup. _I’m_ sorry.”

The corners of his mouth twitched at that. “Fair.”

“And I’m also sorry for not leaving,” I frowned at him. “I didn’t mean to seem nosy or anything. I really was just hungry. Social situations are _not_ my strength.”

He smiled fully at that. “No problem, Hawke. Just do me a favor and don’t spread anything you heard around school?”

I nodded. “Of course not.”

“Not that it matters,” he sighed, leaning back onto his arms. “It’ll be all over the castle by tomorrow, I’d wager.”

I wasn’t sure what to say. _Things could be worse,_ I thought. _But he doesn’t want or need to hear that._

If there was one thing I knew, it was that nobody’s sadness should be discredited just because someone else might have it worse. That was something I had a lot of experience with. 

“I’m sure it won’t be too bad,” I finally said. “Maybe at first, but give it a couple weeks and they’ll find a new piece of gossip.”

He pondered that for a beat. “Yeah, that’s probably true.” And then he smiled again. “Not to mention Scor will hex anyone he hears talking about me.”

I snorted. “You Slytherins and your violence.”

Albus raised an eyebrow at you. “Aren’t you the one who punched a thirteen-year-old last year?”

“He tried to feel me up,” I mumbled, my cheeks heating up again. I didn’t realize Albus knew about that- we were familiar enough from classes and our shared friendship with Scorpius, but otherwise we really didn’t know each other well. 

Albus chuckled at that. “Yeah, us Slytherins are the real maniacs.”

“Maniac is a little _strong_.” I crossed my arms and pouted at my now empty bowl, more than a little put out at my food having fallen. 

He laughed. “Well, Hawke,” he stood up. “It’s been interesting, but I should head back to the dungeons. No point in brooding in the kitchens all afternoon.”

“That’s fair, brooding is much more effective in a dorm,” I smiled. 

“Who says I’m going to _keep_ brooding?” He challenged.

I laughed. “It fits the mopey Slytherin stereotype, I suppose.”

“You have some poor misconceptions about my house, you know.”

“True,” I conceded. “I don’t know very many Slytherins, honestly. Scor must just set a rubbish example.” 

Albus cracked a grin at that. “He must.”

I smiled. “Well good luck with everything, Potter. Sorry again, about eavesdropping and the whole girlfriend-cheating-on-you thing.”

I probably shouldn’t have brought up the last bit. Luckily, he looked more amused than affronted. “Thanks, Hawke. See you around.”

Albus Potter nodded once more before exiting the kitchens, and I was left alone. 

* * *

**_October_ **

_Dear Julia,_

_It’s October! Gods I love Autumn. Remember the pumpkin patch we used to visit when we were little? I wish I could go back._

_Oh, I’ve decided I ought to join a club! There are so many new student-founded ones these days, it should be easy to pick something. I’ll see what sort of flyers are up in the common room. You were in a Muggle film one, weren’t you? Maybe I’ll see if that’s still going._

_The others felt bad about the picnic, but they’re going about righting things all the wrong way. They’re still hell-bent on setting me up with someone. It’s part of why I want to join a club- I need to get away from those loons for a bit._

_At least Flik is willing to buy me some chocolate in Hogsmeade today! That should be fun._

_Well, here I go. Fingers crossed that I figure my shit out!_

_Love always,_

_Mika_

I signed my letter before hopping off my bed. Flik was waiting for me by the door. 

“Finished up?” She asked me, but not unkindly. My letters were among the few things for which she had any patience. 

“Yeah,” I smiled. “All done.”

“Great,” she beamed. “Let’s get to Hogsmeade then, I’m bloody starving.”

I grabbed a jacket and threw it on a little lazily before tugging on the closest shoes. 

Flik raised an eyebrow at me. 

“What?” I frowned, looking down at myself. “Am I missing something?”

“No,” she smiled. “I like the ankle boots though. Putting in some effort today, I see. Finally going to let us get you a date?”

I made a face. “Fuck off, Flik. They were the first things I could find. You wear heels all the time.” She was wearing them as we spoke, actually. She could pull them off much better than I could- then again, Flik could probably pull off a large plastic bag, with her stupidly pretty blonde hair that held perfect ringlets and her hazel eyes. 

I’ve tried to curl my hair- even with magic, it won’t hold. 

“I’m five-foot-two,” she rolled her eyes. “I need them.”

“Fair enough,” I conceded. “Shall we?” 

We left for the common room together, our other roommates already gone. Rose was an early riser, Josette was dating a girl from Ravenclaw and usually slept there, and our last roommate, Anna, was all over the place. 

“Oh,” I said as we neared the portrait hole. “Hang on, I was going to look over the club postings.”

“You’re joining a club?” Flik asked in surprise. “Why?”

I shrugged. “Julia told me last year that I need more hobbies. I figure I ought to take her advice.”

A flash of concern crossed her features for a moment, but it was fleeting, and I was grateful for that. Flik knew how I felt about pity. 

Prideful Gryffindors and all that shit. 

“Well, maybe I’ll join you,” she commented. “I don’t even have Quidditch- Godric knows I could use more things to do.”

“And take away from snog time with a certain Weasley?” I smirked at her. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

I stood by the bulletin board, scanning the ads and postings. _Charms Club, Dueling Club, Muggle Film Society, Wizards Chess Club, Star Gazers, Flying Club_ \- 

“Flying club?” Flik questioned. 

“Some people like to fly, but either didn’t make the Quidditch team or just don’t care for the sport,” I explained. 

- _Magical Creatures Critters, Brewmasters_ -

“Are they referring to Potions or alcohol?” Flik wondered aloud. 

“I can’t imagine they’d put an alcohol club ad out in the open,” I snorted. 

- _Castle Crashers, Murder Mystery Parties, Gobstones Club_ \- 

“Blimey, there are so many clubs here,” I frowned. “What even _are_ some of these? Castle Crashers?”

“I’ve heard of that one, actually!” Flik exclaimed. “It’s for kids who stay at the castle over Christmas Break; they play widespread games of stupid things like hide-and-seek or capture-the-flag, but because the castle is so empty over the holidays, they get to use the entire grounds and play them on a huge scale.”

“That’s awesome,” I grinned. “It’s almost too bad that I go home for the break.”

“Honestly,” Flik agreed. 

None of these others seemed particularly appealing, though the Murder Mystery Parties probably could have been fun. Nonetheless, I figured I’d look back over them later. 

“Hogsmeade?” Flik smiled at me. 

I looped an arm through hers. “Absolutely! I need chocolate.”

Flik and I began our day at Honeydukes, as she’d promised. I may have milked the abandoned-best-friend thing a little much, as she spent a _lot_ of money on me. I felt guilty, of course, but who was I to deny her wishes to buy me candy?

Next, we hit Gladrags. Flik and I had always particularly enjoyed browsing their weird shirts and socks. They had a wide variety of graphics, ranging from Muggle references to famous Wizards. 

“You should get that one,” I pointed at a shirt of Harry Potter flossing between his legs with a snake. “I bet your boyfriend would _love_ snogging a girl wearing a shirt with his uncle on it.”

Flik’s eyes bugged out of her head at the sight of it, and we both broke out into sniggers like the mature seventeen-year-olds we were. 

I wound up buying a gray tee that spoofed Abbey Road- rather than the Beatles walking down the crosswalk, it depicted a house elf, a centaur, a unicorn, and a mermaid (the mermaid was more or less dragging itself on the ground). Flik took one look at it and burst out laughing again.

We browsed Zonkos for a bit as well. There were so many new products, I didn’t know where to start. There was one particular wall of goods that I liked the best: it was full of items that resembled classic muggle gags, but with wizarding twists: whoopie cushions that were charmed to throw the person who sat on them out of their chair and electric shock handshake buzzers that would make your hair stand up as if you’d really been electrocuted. 

I picked up a pair of glasses that had a nose and mustache attached, that apparently temporarily concealed the identity of whoever wore them. I also grabbed some other more conventional things, like dungbombs, sugar quills, and a stick of gum that would supposedly make the chewers inflate themselves. 

Finally, lunchtime arrived, so Flik and I headed over to the Three Broomsticks to meet Scorpius and the others. 

The pub was crowded per usual, but I still easily spotted his blindingly blonde hair near the back. “There they are,” I pointed out to Flik, who followed me over. 

As we got closer, I noticed that in addition to Scorpius, Rose, Lucy and Trevor, Albus Potter sat beside them as well. I hadn’t talked to him since the kitchens incident, so I couldn’t help but feel a little nervous about seeing him. 

“-ridiculous, Al,” I heard Lucy saying once we were close enough. 

“I don’t care,” Albus shrugged at her. The five of them were spread around a large, round table, with two open seats waiting for Flik and me. 

“Hey guys,” Flik waved to everyone. 

“You made it!” Lucy beamed at us. “We waited for you, sit down!” 

Flik took the seat between Scorpius and Trevor, leaving one more open one between Lucy and Albus. I bit back a grimace and instead smiled as I sat down. 

“How’s everyone’s trip been?” I asked, looking around the table. 

“Mostly good,” Rose said, though she was frowning. “Until finding out that our cousin’s an idiot.”

“I am _not,_ ” Albus protested, while Lucy nodded vehemently in agreement with Rose. “I don’t want to go home for Christmas, what’s so wrong with that?”

“When have any of you lot ever _not_ gone home?” Scorpius questioned. 

“Well up until this year, none of us had ever had a cousin sleep with someone we were dating,” Albus shot back dryly. 

My eyes widened. I knew he’d been cheated on, of course, but I hadn’t realized it was with a relative of his. Flik looked similarly shocked. 

“Al,” Rose frowned. “Fred wrote you like a _dozen_ letters explaining himself. Melanie told him you’d broken up.”

Albus rolled his eyes. “Even if that’s true, it only makes it all marginally less shitty.”

“He feels awful,” Lucy chimed in, looking distraught. I suppose in such a massive, yet close-knit family, fights affected pretty much everyone. 

“He should,” Albus retorted, crossing his arms and leaning back. 

“I’m going to grab a drink,” I said quickly, standing up. I felt weird listening to the family argue. “Anyone want anything?”

Evidently everyone wanted something, so Albus, eager to get away from the conversation, offered to help me carry stuff back. 

“Thanks,” I said as we walked to the bar. 

“No problem,” he replied, sounding a little exasperated. “I know my cousins mean well, but I could use a break from the interrogations.”

“Fair enough.” I opted not to say much more on the matter. I’d never been cheated on, but I could imagine that it made someone feel pretty shitty. I wouldn’t want to talk about it either. 

We ordered a round of butterbeers for the table, save myself getting rum, and Albus getting Firewhisky. I raised an eyebrow at him. 

“You’re drinking rum, Hawke, don’t judge me,” he smirked. 

“Rum has nothing on that shit,” I laughed. “Firewhisky makes me do awful things.”

His smirk only widened. He leaned against the bar while we waited for the drinks and looked at me sideways. “What sort of awful things?”

“Trevor’s shithead roommate, for one thing,” I frowned at the memory. 

“Which one? Davies?”

I nodded, screwing up my face. “Somehow he got it into his mind that a drunken hookup meant I wanted to date him, and I was too embarrassed about the night before to set him straight right away.”

“Didn’t you date for like a _year?_ ” Albus asked, looking thoroughly amused. 

“Right away, a year, same difference really,” I waved a hand. Albus laughed at that. “He ended up gradually turning into more and more of a git, so I ended things eventually.”

“What was your breaking point?” He asked. “After a year of enduring that arse, I’m surprised you didn’t just cave in and marry the bloke out of sheer awkwardness.”

“I contemplated it,” I grinned wryly. “But he ended up crossing a line one day, and I wound up breaking his nose.”

“Fucking hell,” Albus exclaimed, his eyebrows shooting up. “What’d he do?”

“He broke my broom,” I scowled. “He claimed it was an accident, but it was obvious he’d done it to mess with our Quidditch final.”

“What a tosser,” Albus rolled his eyes. “That’s just poor sportsmanship.”

“And that’s coming from a Slytherin,” I grinned cheekily, just as Madam Rosmeta brought us our drinks. 

He snorted. “You’re right _prejudiced_ , aren’t you?”

I gathered three of the mugs in my arms, while he somehow carried four. “Hey, Scorpius tried to get my team’s tactics out of me during our picnics like four times last year,” I defended myself as we headed back to the table. 

“Scorpius is single handedly ruining any progress Slytherin had made toward becoming reputable.”

We reached the others and distributed drinks.

“Al, are you drinking Firewhisky?” Rose asked disapprovingly. 

“Shit, I should have ordered one too,” Scorpius frowned. Albus grinned at his best mate while Rose elbowed him. 

“It’s better than that gross rum Mika loves so much,” Flik sniggered. 

“The only person I’ve seen enjoy that rubbish is my sixty year old _father_ ,” Trevor agreed. 

“You lot have poor taste,” I sniffed, holding my mug protectively. 

They laughed at me, unsurprisingly. “Anyway,” Lucy said as the laughter quelled. “We were saying while you were gone, Al, that you should still come stay with one of us during the break. I know you probably don’t want to be home, since Fred’s usually there with James, but you’re welcome at my place.”

“Mine too,” Rose added. 

“Hell, come stay at the Manor,” Scorpius said. 

Albus sighed heavily, taking a large swig of his Firewhisky. “Thank you, honestly. But I _want_ to stay at the castle. I’ve never seen it devoid of most students- should be fun.”

“That just sounds lonely,” Trevor commented. 

“And depressing,” Flik added unhelpfully. 

“Yeah, what are you going to do all day, Al?” Rose asked. “Brood?”

"Well, you know us brooding Slytherins," Albus smirked slightly, looking pointedly at me. “I’m just playing the part that’s expected of me. 

I nearly choked on my sip as his cousins shot me accusatory glances. "Oi, I was joking! Don't implicate me, here," I exclaimed as Albus chuckled. 

“Would you lot relax?” He demanded. “You’re making this into far too big of a deal. Just lay off, yeah?”

“I guess,” Lucy said, looking worried. 

“Just think about it,” Rose requested. 

“Fine,” Albus rolled his eyes. “I’ll think about it.”

It was plenty obvious to us all that he was full of shit, but no one pushed the subject any further. Instead, we shifted the conversation to happier topics, which grew easier after several more drinks and some food. 

Eventually, it was agreed that we ought to head back to the castle. Rose wanted to do homework, Flik wanted to find Louis, Trevor and Lucy probably wanted to shag, and Albus and I had both become a little too tipsy to be in public. 

This was confirmed as I stumbled over my feet on our walk to the carriages. 

“You have enough rum, Mika?” Flik asked me, her eyes wide with false innocence. 

“Nope,” I shook my head with a smile. “Absolutely not. Lucky for me, I bought some bottles to bring back.” I gave my small bag a pat, grateful for the extension charm on it. 

“ _Great,_ ” she groaned, looping an arm through mine. “Do I need to babysit you?”

I laughed. “No, no, go snog your boyfriend. I’ll find a nice safe spot to drink.”

We’d reached the carriages by then. One by one, our group climbed up into the carriages. Albus held a hand out to help me up, which I took graciously. _Very_ graciously. Good god that bloke is _dishy_. 

I found myself chancing a glance at him again during the ride back, while the others returned to conversations of their own. 

He was smiling at something Rose was saying, and I found that I rather liked his smile. It was a little crooked, and kind of wry, like everything was an ironic joke to him. Some might have found it a little off putting, because it was the kind of smile that screamed “I can’t take life seriously, and I’m probably inwardly laughing at you,” but somehow that just made it more attractive to me. 

We hit a bump at some point during the ride. “Ow,” Trevor whined as we all landed with a thump. “What happened, we hit a rock?”

“I think it was a tree branch,” I corrected. “The thestral made a weird veer to the right to avoid the thicker part of it.”

Albus, who’d been talking to Rose off to his left, turned back to me sharply. Flik sent me a troubled look before busying herself with picking at some chipping nail polish.

I frowned, wondering what I’d said. 

“You can see them?” He asked in wonder. 

_Shit,_ I thought. 

“Oh,” I said lamely. “I- yeah. I lost a, um, hamster, once.”

Rose frowned. “Is that true? I didn’t think animal deaths would impact whether you see them.”

“I was very attached to him,” I responded quickly, hoping any sweat on my face would be chalked up to the alcohol I’d consumed. _Stupid, stupid, stupid._

They let it go, to my relief, but I noticed Albus kept sneaking suspicious looks at me for the rest of the ride. I know this because I was essentially staring at him for the duration of the trip, much like a creepy fangirl. 

What can I say? He was nicer to look at than the ugly death horses, as cruel as it sounds. 

A few minutes later, and after lots of drooling and staring on my part, we found ourselves back at Hogwarts. 

Before departing to find Louis, Flik pulled me to her side and whispered, “You should stare a little harder, I don’t think you’ve made yourself out to be a complete stalker yet.”

I scowled and smacked the back of my hand against her arm. What a bitch my best friend was. 

* * *

_Dear Julia,_

_I had a fair bunch to drink ~~tonite~~ ~~tonigt~~ t_ _onight, and let me just say, I fucking miss you. I had a great day otherwise; I bought so much shit, Mum would be so annoyed if she knew. Working at Dad’s shop last year over the breaks paid off big time, literally, because I had tons of ~~gallons?~~ galleons to blow. _

_But beyond that, I had so much fun with everyone! Flik didn’t bring Louis, which meant I had my best friend to myself for the first time in months, and I got to have some interesting chats with Albus Potter once again. I ought to talk to him more often, though I think I definitely stared too much._

_Anyway, I feel a little pukey if I’m being quite honest, so that’s it for tonight (spelling is difficult under the influence)._

_Love and miss you so much,_

_Mika_

* * *

**A/N: Alright, here's the introduction! No blood or anything yet, just wanted to get everyone acquainted with Mika and her friends before I bring on the chaos. If you're confused about the letters, don't worry, it'll be explained later. Let me know what you think, especially of Mika and Albus! They don't know each other too well, but obviously have chemistry, so I'm trying to write that realistically. I'm so excited to get to the next chapter. I have it written, so it'll be a quick update after some editing. Next chapter, shit starts to get a little (a lot) nutty. I'm aiming for fewer chapters that are each just really long, but let me know if this was _too_ long and I'll look into fixing how I break stuff up. **

**-K**

**_Disclaimer: Anything or anyone you recognize belongs to JK Rowling._ **


	3. Castle Crashers

_**November** _

_Dear Julia,_

_Flik and the others are making me go to a party tonight. It’s Albus Potter’s birthday, and apparently he told Scorpius and his cousins to invite our whole group along. I haven’t been to a party in ages- this is going to be a nightmare._

_That’s all I have to say for now, I just needed to complain to someone._

_Lots of love,_

_Mika_

* * *

“I don’t understand why you’re making me go with Finnegan,” I growled at Flik through the open bathroom doorway. Rose giggled from her own bed as she did her makeup in a mirror she’d charmed to float. 

“Louis and I will be together,” Flik reasoned. “Rose will be with Scorpius, and obviously Trevor and Lucy. This way you won’t be a seventh wheel.” The bitch was putting earrings in as she spoke- I silently and spitefully wished she’d fuck up and stab herself. 

“I don’t want to go with _Luke Finnegan,_ ” I whined. “He’s my _Quidditch captain_ and he’s rubbish!”

“Well too bad,” Flik sang. “You agreed.”

“You didn’t give me a choice,” I snapped. “You told him yes _for_ me.”

“You could have cancelled,” Rose pointed out. She’d become much more bold in the last month; I appreciated it, actually. 

“I couldn’t, actually,” I grumbled, staring at my reflection loathingly. My dumb brown hair was so _boring._ It could lie flat, and that was about all it was good for. If I wanted to try anything _fun_ with it? Fat chance. “Flik told him to give me laps if I try and back out.”

Rose snorted. “That’s friendship, that is.”

“Thanks so much for the support, Rose,” I turned to glower at her. Her own hair was down in waves, and it looked so naturally pretty I couldn’t help the envy that struck. _Stupid family of gorgeous redheads._

“You’ll be fine, Mika,” Flik rolled her eyes. “And Luke is friends with Louis, so it means you can stay by us the whole time.”

“I don’t even know why I _need_ a date,” I said for probably the fifteenth time that evening. I angrily brushed at my hair, pointlessly since it had already been brushed. 

“To give you a break from fangirling over Albus,” Flik snorted. 

“I do _not_ fangirl!”

And I was being honest. Albus and I, despite remaining friendly when we’d see each other in the halls or in class, spent little to no time together, and I’d become too busy with Quidditch and classes to really spend any time staring at him like a loon the way I had in Hogsmeade. Mostly. 

“I think you and Al would actually be kind of cute,” Rose said thoughtfully. “You both have such tasteless humor and tendencies to glare silently at inanimate objects. No offense, I speak with love.”

I snorted. “Thanks, Weasley. You make me sound like an utter delight.”

“You are a delight! Your personality is _refreshing._ I think Al agrees,” she added with a pointed smile.

“I don’t like it,” Flik frowned. “I mean don’t get me wrong, he’s fit, but I feel like Mika needs to be with someone that can be sunshine-and-rainbows enough for the both of them. Otherwise it’d just get sad.”

“He’s not _depressing,_ ” Rose countered. “Just a little sarcastic, and sort of…”

“Droll, Rosie, the word you’re looking for is _droll_ ,” Flik shot back before throwing her hair over her shoulder and evaluating her appearance. 

“No one actually uses the word ‘droll,’ Flik,” I snorted. 

“And be nice, Corner, that’s my cousin,” Rose said, looking a little irritated. 

“Sorry, sorry.”

I said nothing on the actual matter beyond criticizing Flik’s diction. I didn’t want to take sides and find myself in a row with anyone. I just wanted to get the night over with and move on with my life. 

But inwardly, I had to admit, droll was my favorite sort of humor. 

About twenty minutes and twice as many outfit changes later, we were ready for the party. I opted for a simple black shirt and a mustard colored corduroy skirt, with my go-to ankle boots. It was passable, I’d decided, and Flik approved which was a good sign. 

We met Louis and Luke down in the common room. 

Luke looked nervous, which was ridiculous to me since I refused to acknowledge this as a real date. 

“Hey Captain,” I grinned wryly when we reached the bottom of the stairs. 

“Hey Hawke,” he smiled back slightly. “You look nice.”

“Thank you.”

Flik, meanwhile, had jumped into Louis’s arms and snogged the living daylights out of him for a full twenty seconds before they remembered where they were. She pulled away and sheepishly grinned and Rose and me, while we glared back. 

“Right,” she mumbled. “Uh- let’s go!”

The five of us headed up to the Room of Requirement, where the party was held. Some Slytherin I didn’t recognize was perched outside, letting people in. He recognized Rose before the rest of us and ushered us all inside. 

Inside was a massive room, with what looked like a stacked bar, a huge dance floor, and lots of food. I smiled when I caught sight of the dessert table. I knew where I’d be spending _my_ evening. 

We found Scorpius and Albus off to one side, playing some drinking game I hadn’t heard of that involved cups, gobstones, and tiny goal posts. 

“Happy Birthday, Al!” Rose squealed when we reached them, throwing her arms around her cousin. 

“Oof, thanks Rosie,” Albus grinned. “Although you made me miss my shot just there, so you're going to have to get me extra presents.”

She rolled her eyes before giving Scorpius a quick hello kiss. 

“You look lovely,” he smiled at her, wrapping an arm around her waist. She blushed, her smile so wide I thought it’d break her face. He drew her in for another kiss, this one lasting a bit longer than the first. 

Albus caught my eye and mimed vomiting, to my amusement. 

Louis came forward and clapped Albus on the back. “Happy Birthday, mate,” he said. “Your present is… incoming.”

Albus raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Yeah?” Louis punched him in the arm suddenly, making Albus grunt and grab his arm. “ _Ow,_ Louis, you fucker.”

“There’s seventeen more to come,” Louis said cheerily before grabbing Flik’s hand and dragging her off to the dance floor. 

Lucy kissed her cousin on the cheek and handed him a small parcel, and Trevor shook his hand. They too left to dance shortly after. 

Luke looked terribly out of place. “Hey, Potter,” he smiled a little awkwardly. “Happy Eighteenth.”

Albus looked a little surprised to find Luke present at all, his eyes darting back and forth between us. “Oh- thanks Finnegan. Glad to have you.”

“Who’s winning?” I asked, looking at their game that still made no sense to me. I wanted to divert attention away from my awkward “date” as quickly as possible.

“That depends,” Albus smirked. “Technically, I’m losing, but I’m also getting drunk faster, which is a sort of win in itself, wouldn’t you say?”

I laughed. “Absolutely.”

“Don’t go too fast, Al,” Rose reprimanded as one of Scor’s gobstones shot into Albus’s goal post. I didn’t even see him send it forward, and I had no idea how it worked. 

“That’s another point to me,” Scorpius smirked. Rose threw him a scathing look. “Sorry, love, it’s not my fault he’s rubbish at this.”

“That’s alright,” Albus rolled his eyes. He passed the drink over in front of me. “I’m calling in a guest drinker.”

I could feel Luke’s eyes on me as Albus placed the cup down. I grinned easily. “Well, if you insist.” I grabbed the cup and chugged down whatever was inside. It didn’t burn, so I was pretty sure it wasn’t Firewhisky. Honestly, drinking a random cup handed to me was probably a bad idea, but I was among friends. 

“Tastes like piss,” I frowned. 

Albus laughed. “It’s beer.”

“Disgusting.”

Albus shook his head, still smiling. “I made sure to have some rum stashed at the bar just for you, Hawke, go crazy.”

“Not too crazy,” Rose amended, though she was also smiling. 

“You got it Rose,” I saluted her, before turning for the bar. Luke followed at my side, probably feeling a little lost. 

“This is weird,” he said, his voice raised over the music. 

I smiled sympathetically. “It is. I’m sorry.”

He waved a hand. “Not your fault, this was Flik’s doing.”

We reached the bar, which was being tended by Jory Zabini, one of Albus’s roommates. I nodded at him, to which he nodded back. We’d had enough classes together to be on good terms.

“Hey Zabini,” I greeted. Luke’s eyes had narrowed slightly. He wasn’t particularly fond of his rival Keeper. 

“Alright Hawke?” Jory replied with a lazy grin. “I have a bottle of rum with your name on it- literally, Albus _wrote_ on it.”

I snorted. “I didn’t realize he and I were so close. Pour me a glass, please?”

“You got it.”

He sent me the glass before turning to Finnegan, his smile becoming less friendly and more of a smirk. “And for you, Finnegan?”

Luke eyed the other bloke warily, probably worried about his drink ending up spiked. It wouldn’t have been an unfounded concern, honestly. _I_ wasn’t worried, but these two weren’t fond of each other. 

“I’ll take some mead,” Luke said at last, watching Jory _very_ closely as the latter filled up a glass. 

“See you around,” Jory nodded to me, and I waved back. 

“You’re very friendly with the Slytherins,” Luke commented as we headed back toward Albus, Scorpius, and Rose. 

I shrugged. “They’re good blokes.”

“They’re also our biggest competition this year,” Luke said seriously. 

I sighed and took a large swig. This was going to be a long night. 

“Thank you for the rum,” I beamed at Albus when we returned. 

“Any time,” he winked, making me blush slightly. 

“Oi!” 

I groaned inwardly, recognizing Flik’s voice. I turned to her with a smile, however. “Hey Flik!”

She and Louis looked like they’d already had at least a drink each by then, which was impressive since I’d only just _acquired_ one. 

“Come dance, you two!” She commanded, pointing at Luke and me. 

I grimaced. “I _hate_ dancing, Flik!”

Luke raised his eyebrows. “What, you bad at it?”

“Absolutely!” I agreed loudly. “And besides, I heard my name being called.”

“From where?” Flik demanded, still half dancing in place while Louis started dancing against Albus, who was shoving him away. 

“From the _dessert table!_ ” I exclaimed. “Someone over there must want my attention, I ought to go check it out.”

She glowered at me. “Come _on,_ Hawke, don’t be lame.”

“Not dancing isn’t lame,” Albus cut in, saving me from a reply. “It’s my party, I’m not dancing either.”

“That’s because _you’re_ lame!” Louis laughed, kissing his cousin on the cheek. 

I giggled at his antics. From what I’d seen of Louis, he probably wasn’t even drunk yet. He was just bonkers. Albus wiped at his cheek, pushing his cousin back toward Flik. 

“You’re being a shit date,” Flik informed me, looking displeased. 

Luke shrugged. “I don’t think either of us wanted the date, Corner.”

I beamed at him for offering support. “ _Thank you,_ Finnegan. Now if you’ll excuse me, I do actually have a date with that- blimey, is that a cotton candy machine? How does that work here? Sorry, Flik, I’ve got to go!”

Her resigned laughter sounded behind me as I made a beeline for the dessert. 

The rest of the party was much more fun. Albus found me by the desserts not long later, and came to chat with me about mundane things, but somehow he made even the most trivial topics _interesting_. 

“-and then Lily set his pants on fire,” he chuckled. We were standing a little ways behind the table, leaning against the wall. 

I laughed as well. “I get it. Liar, liar, pants on fire.”

“Exactly,” he nodded, his eyes sparkling. “If Lily’s first accidental use of magic wasn’t going to convince Mum that James was full of shit about breaking her broom, nothing would.”

“Your mum played _professionally,_ didn’t she?” I furrowed my eyes. 

“She did,” he nodded. “So yes, it was an _expensive_ broom.”

“Did James die?” I asked, my eyes wide. I might have been a little drunk. 

Albus laughed at the question. “He absolutely died. Haven’t seen him since.”

I snorted. “I might have seen him once or twice. You know, when he was _killing my legs._ ”

“Ah,” his eyes lit up in recognition, though it was slightly hard to tell in the dull lighting of the Room of Requirement. They had kept it dim to create a better party atmosphere, apparently. “I forgot you guys played Quidditch together.”

“It was a nightmare,” I shuddered, leaning my head against the wall. 

“And now?” Albus raised an eyebrow, gesturing toward Luke, who across the room was walking toward the exit alone. 

I shrugged. “Luke’s not as much of a Nazi, but he’s a shit captain, honestly.”

“Apparently not a great date, either, if you ditched him,” Albus pointed out, looking amused. 

“It was never a date,” I explained. “Flik set it up because she thinks I’m lonely.”

“Are you?” he tilted his head, leaning forward a bit. I had to remind myself to breathe, which annoyed me because I’d always thought that was just a cliché you read in fairy tales about handsome blokes and princesses and shit. 

“ _No,_ ” I said adamantly. “I have _friends,_ and a sis- and a _family,_ and a nice pet owl. That’s loads of company.”

“Right,” he grinned. “Owls are good boyfriend substitutes, I bet.”

“Bite me,” I growled. 

“That’s a tad kinkier than I’m used to, Hawke,” Albus smirked. “But if you absolutely insist-”

“Oh go hump a cactus,” I snapped, grabbing for a cupcake on the table in front of us to shut myself up.

He laughed again. “You’re one of a kind, Mika Hawke.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m glad I could entertain, Birthday Boy.”

We fell into a small silence for a moment, and I took the time to scan the room for my friends. Flik was snogging Louis against a wall in the corner, a little enthusiastically for being in public.

_They probably ought to get a room,_ I thought. _This place smells like sweat and alcohol, that’s hardly romantic._

Lucy and Trevor were playing that weird drinking game that Albus and Scorpius had been attempting before, and from the grin on Lucy’s face and Trevor’s look of frustration, I was pretty sure the latter was losing. 

Rose and Scorpius were dancing slowly, despite the music still pumping quickly. They didn’t seem to care though, and were simply swaying slowly on the edge of the dance floor. I made a face. _Pansies._

Albus caught my look and grinned a little sardonically. “What, mushy love isn’t for you?”

I shrugged again, crossing my arms. “There’s a reason I’m, in Flik’s words, ‘desperately single’ I suppose.”

“That’s a load of shit,” Albus snorted. “There are plenty of blokes who don’t want a cheesy, sickeningly cute romance. I’m sure someone will appeal to you eventually.”

_You’re very appealing,_ I thought, but I stayed quiet. Albus Potter was the kind of bloke who dated the beautiful, popular girls. I was not ugly, don’t get me wrong, but he was a fucking _sex god._

“Maybe,” I said softly. “Were you and Melanie ever like that?” The question surprised _me_ , even though I’d said it. Alcohol does that, I suppose. 

He seemed taken aback. “Uh- no, not really. I mean we dated a long time, like two years, but I don’t think we were ever in _love._ Not like Rose and Scor.”

I couldn’t argue with him- Scorpius and Rose looked very much in love. 

“How’ve you been, since all that?” I asked carefully. 

Albus tilted his head back and forth once, looking thoughtful. “Not horrible, anymore. I was angry, definitely, but I’ve hit a point where when I see her in the hallways, she’s just another face. And I no longer feel the urge to curse my cousin’s lights out, which I’d consider _progress._ ” 

I smiled. “I’d say so. Not wanting to kill your cousin is like the _definition_ of character development.”

He grinned back. “Well, since I’m obviously the main character of whatever story we’re living, I suppose it’s only right that I get a good character arch.”

“Exactly,” I nodded solemnly. “Wouldn’t want to disappoint the fangirls, you know.”

“You’ve brought that up before,” Albus noticed. “Do I have fangirls? There’s no way I wouldn’t have noticed.”

“I may be exaggerating,” I admitted. “They’re more like gawkers-from-afar.”

“Ah, yes, I’ve seen some of _those,_ ” he smirked devilishly. “One’s got brown hair, blue eyes, sort of smells like marshmallow, and wears a lot of funny shirts, I’ve noticed.”

My eyes widened and I found myself coloring deeply. “Er- yeah, she does sound quite… bothersome,” I frowned, feeling thoroughly flustered. 

“Could be worse,” he shrugged. “She wears a lot of distractingly short skirts, so I can’t say I haven’t stared back.”

_Oh holy Merlin Almighty_ , I thought. _Pinch me. Wait- don’t pinch me. A pinch from some all powerful wizard godlike figure would fucking hurt, wouldn’t it?_

“Oh,” was all I managed. _Oh? Oh? Oh you’re getting zero sleep tonight, Mika Hawke, this is your inner voice and I will keep you up ALL NIGHT for this._

His smirk deepened. He looked pleased to have thrown me off. “You alright, Hawke?”

“I am _super,_ ” I mumbled back, feeling dazed. “And you’re a prat, Albus Potter.”

He laughed at that, his face shifting to show more genuine amusement than mockery. “I can’t disagree with you, there.”

As confused as I was feeling, having no idea whether he was making fun of me or genuinely flirting with me, I really didn’t want to leave. 

Fate, however, had other ideas, arriving in the form of the one and only Flik Corner. 

At some point she’d apparently detached herself from Louis Weasley’s face, and had stumbled over to the wall against which Albus and I were leaning. 

“Mika!” She shouted. 

“Yes, love?” I smiled. I was still a little peeved with her about earlier, but it was hard to stay mad at someone so obviously drunk. 

“I need your help,” she pleaded, coming forward and draping her arms around me. “I threw up and I need you to help me back to the dorm.”

“Where’s Louis?” I frowned, lightly pushing her away at the mention of her having puked. 

“He’s getting me some water,” she explained. “But I’ll need you to get me up the stairs. Please, please, oh please?” She pouted at me, her hazel eyes wide and her lip jutting out. It was the full fledged puppy-dog face, and I am apparently far too good a friend. 

“Alright,” I sighed. I looped an arm through hers, despite my desire to stay far away from any potential splash zones. I glanced at Albus apologetically. “Looks like I’m out. Thank you for having us, though, and Happy Birthday again.”

He smiled back at me. “I’m glad you came. See you around, Hawke.” He winked, and I had a suspicion that he was referring to the aforementioned “gawking” that we’d been discussing. 

“Right,” I mumbled, blushing deeply as I escorted Flik away from the floor of raging dance moves and hormones. Louis caught up with us as we reached the door, taking Flik’s other arm and helping me support her. 

I glanced back once before we could leave. 

I suppose it was just confirming what Albus had been teasing me about earlier. And, to my dismay, he was watching us leave, still in his same spot at the back. He smirked when he caught my eye, and he nodded once. I couldn’t help but grin back. 

Despite having a sneaking suspicion that this would just be another of our one-off moments together that seemed to occur every now and then, I couldn't stop smiling regardless. 

* * *

_Dear Julia,_

_I had a wicked time at a lovely party. I can’t imagine things going sour from here, honestly._

_Yours,_

_Mika_

Note: Never say something like what I said in that letter. Because the moment you think things will stay good, _everything_ will go wrong. 

Seriously. Never say it. You might genuinely save lives. 

* * *

_**December** _

_Dear Julia,_

_I’ll be honest, today really sucks. It’s complete and utter rubbish. I know I’ve written you like eight times about how much I’m not looking forward to the holidays, but I just can’t help it. What the bloody hell were Mum and Dad thinking, leaving me here? After what happened over the summer? Are they fucking mad? I know overseas tickets are a little pricey, but if they couldn’t afford a third ticket couldn’t they just have, oh I don’t know, made different plans? _

_Sorry. This became more of a rant than I’d intended. I’m so just pissed off, and kind of embarrassed to be the girl-whose-parents-fucked-off-to-America-Without-Her-For-The-Holidays. Bloody hell, writing those dashes out was fucking irritating._

_I didn’t even tell the others- they think I’m going home. We aren’t usually all together on the train anyway, so I reckon they’ll just assume I’m sitting with others and that I’m on my way back like the lot of them._

_I guess I’ll be going, now. The train’s scheduled to leave around now, which means anyone going home is probably gone. I want to see how depressingly empty the castle is._

_Love you always,_

_Mika_

The dorm had been empty when I woke up that morning. Everyone was down at the station in Hogsmeade, I imagined. I wondered why no one had awoken me to question why I wasn’t packed, but then I remembered that Rose and Flik had both been with their respective boyfriends the night before, and had their stuff with them already. They probably figured they’d see me on the train. Josette wouldn’t care much, and I barely knew Anna. 

After signing my letter, I sealed it and made for the door, only stopping to put my boots on. I caught my reflection on the way out and felt surprisingly good about it. There was something invigorating about putting effort into my appearance when almost no one would see me. I had a black denim skirt over the funny Beatles-magical-creatures-spoof shirt I’d bought in Hogsmeade back in October. It was probably a weird choice of clothing for December, but I was sure I’d wind up either in the kitchens or in front of the fireplace in the common room for most of my day. 

Downstairs, I was nearing the portrait hole, when I opted to stop at the bulletin board, a memory coming to mind. 

The club ads hadn’t changed, still splattered about the board, and I quickly found the one for Castle Crashers. Flik had said it was made up of the people who stayed at Hogwarts over the holidays. 

I supposed that included myself. 

The posting included a meeting date and time, showing to be that night, in an empty Charms classroom. 

I left Gryffindor tower and departed for the kitchens, figuring I could get a good glimpse of the emptiness of the castle on my way there. 

The castle really was all but deserted for the holidays. I traversed across most of the grounds for the duration of the day, and I only ran into a handful of people. Even most of the professors seemed to be gone. I knew Headmaster McGonagall would probably still be around, and Filch of course, but most of the other staff members were either hiding in their own offices or quarters, or they just weren’t in the school. 

Ella fixed me up with a lovely bowl of cereal from the kitchens before bidding me a happy Christmas- per their contracts, house elves weren’t obligated to remain at Hogwarts for the break if they didn’t want to, and were entitled to paid vacations. As far as I could see, all of them took the break, and I wondered who took over meals during the holidays. 

Don’t get me wrong, I can cook, but I know for a fact that most Hogwarts students are lazy pieces of shit who wouldn’t last a full day on their own- not to be cynical or anything, just realistic. 

I was on my way back up to Gryffindor tower, figuring I’d read by the fire until the Castle Crashers meeting, when I ran into Jory Zabini. 

“Hawke?” He furrowed his eyebrows when he saw me coming down the corridor. “What are you doing here, I don’t usually see you hanging around over the break.”

I smiled at him. “Hey Zabini. And I don’t, usually, but my parents went to the States this year, so I’m hanging around.”

He grinned. “Well cool. Going to try out Castle Crashers, then? Last year we played a castle-wide game of hide and seek that literally took 12 hours.”

I snorted. “I better remember to eat a hearty meal beforehand, then.”

“Cheers,” he laughed. “See you tonight.”

“Bye,” I sent him a wave with my spoon before continuing on my way. At least I’d know someone at the meeting, then. I wondered what game they’d have us play tonight. 

I was a great runner, thanks to James Potter forcing me on runs for most of my Quidditch years, so I hoped we’d play a game that’d require speed. I was quite competitive. 

The meeting was at seven that evening. Having no idea what to expect, I should probably have changed into something a little more athletic, but I was feeling lazy. 

_Whatever. I can run in heels. Hopefully._

The meeting was being held in the Charms classroom on the third floor. I felt a weird twinge of nervousness. I’d know Jory, sure, but I had no idea who else would be at this thing. And let’s be realistic, who’s _actually_ comfortable going into situations where they don’t know people? 

Of course, I shouldn’t have been worried about that. If I hadn’t been such a scatterbrain I would have remembered that Jory _wouldn’t_ be the only person I’d know at this meeting. 

I was only about three steps through the classroom door when I came to an abrupt halt. 

How the _hell_ had I forgotten that Albus Potter would be staying at the school over the break? It’d caused such a _fuss_ with Rose and Lucy when he’d first brought it up!

Albus was sitting beside Jory at one of the desks near the middle of the room. He was still dressed in uniform to an extent, despite us being on break. He had his white button-up on with the sleeves rolled up and a green tie hanging loosely from his neck. He looked _sexy._

_Mind out of the gutter, Hawke,_ I told myself. _He could do a hell lot better than you._

There were only four others beyond us there, all students I didn’t really know, though I vaguely recognized them from passing.

“ _Hawke?_ ” Albus sounded surprised to see me as I came to sit at the desk beside theirs. “What are you doing here?”

I hopped onto the tabletop of the desk, facing the two Slytherins, and shrugged. “My parents wanted to leave the country and couldn’t afford to bring me along,” I explained. 

He frowned. “Brutal.”

“Eh,” I shrugged again. “I don’t mind. They could use the vacation, honestly, I don’t blame them.” Actually, I was pretty pissed off, but who wants to hear that?

“Oh. Well, nice to see you, then,” he said, a smile forming. “Ever been to one of these before?”

I shook my head. “It’s my first time staying over the break. I forgot you weren’t going home.”

He snorted. “My family didn’t. Lily tried to forcibly drag me out of bed this morning. I’m not even sure who let her into the common room.”

“Pretty sure it was Scorpius,” Jory supplied. “He wanted you to leave, too.”

“Couldn’t leave you here by your lonesome,” Albus winked at his roommate. “Where would you be without me?”

“Probably in the dorms with whatever willing partner I could have procured,” he smirked.

“Was Albus not willing?” I tilted my head with a playful grin, crossing one foot over the other and swinging my legs back and forth. 

Jory looked thoughtful. “Come to think of it, I didn’t actually ask. Hey Potter-”

“Pass,” Albus rolled his eyes, resting his chin on the desk. His eyes drifted up toward me, lingering on my legs, to my amusement. 

Jory sighed, before turning to me. “Mika?” He asked hopefully. 

“Keep dreaming,” I scoffed. 

He frowned. “Well this is going to be a rubbish break.” Oh he had no idea. _I_ had no idea. We were all fucking in for it, and no one had a bleeding clue.

Three more students arrived over the next few minutes, including my roommate, Anna. She smiled curiously when she noticed me before going to sit on the other side of the classroom with Grace Cannon, her friend from Ravenclaw, and her brother Edward, a Fifth Year Hufflepuff. 

There was a pause during which no one joined the room again, and the lot of us were left waiting in silence for someone to start the meeting. 

“Anyone know who runs this club?” I asked, loud enough for the room to hear. 

Everyone just shrugged. I looked at Jory, knowing he’d been in the club the year before. “It was some Seventh Year Gryffindor last year,” he shrugged. “I don’t know who’s replacing him.”

Our curiosity was quenched, a moment later, when the door swung open once again. I turned on the desk, swinging my legs around. Six people walked inside, to my surprise. I wasn’t expecting to see many people here. After the war, fewer students tended to stay at school, as families felt motivated to remain closer. 

Three of those who entered were more students I didn’t really recognize. They made for the nearest open desks, sitting amongst the rest of us. 

The fourth was Simon Cook, a Ravenclaw. I was remarkably intimidated by that one- he was very quiet, very intelligent, and built like a brick shithouse. He'd never been a particularly enthusiastic person from what I’d seen. 

Or, I thought he was. When he entered with the others, he looked positively _peppy._ The fifth person with them was one of Lucy’s roommates, a Hufflepuff girl named Meg Donahue. She had an arm around Cook’s waist, while he draped his own over her shoulders. They were laughing as they entered the room, and made for kind of a funny sight since he looked twice her size. 

And the sixth person?

“Finnegan?” I furrowed my eyebrows. “What are you doing here?”

Luke Finnegan wore an easy grin, his hands in his front pockets as he strode in behind Cook and Donahue. “Me? I run this club. Well, I co-run it, with Meg and Simon here.” The three of them stood at the front of the room, flanking each other. 

“Huh,” was all I could say. His grin turned into more of a smirk, like he was enjoying some joke I wasn’t in on, and it bothered me. I was curious about the meeting, however, so I stayed quiet. 

“Welcome,” Luke greeted us all. Minus the three club heads, there were thirteen of us there, scattered about the classroom in chairs- well, mostly in chairs, I was still on the desk for some reason. “This is Castle Crashers. We’re the sad, pathetic lot that stays at Hogwarts over the holidays rather than going home. Some of us didn’t want to go, some of us couldn’t, but what we all have in common?” He paused for effect. “We all have some _banging_ fun evenings ahead of us.”

I thought it was rubbish that he could give off such a charismatic leader vibe for some stupid club when he captained like a git. 

“Over the next few days,” Luke went on. “We’re going to play some games that in any other scenario, would probably be childish and dumb. Here, however, in a nearly empty, _massive_ castle? They’ll be an absolutely wicked time.”

“Do you provide the alcohol, or is more of a bring-your-own type of deal?” a bloke across the room asked, leaning back in his chair. 

Something like anger flashed in Luke’s eyes for a moment, but it was gone so fast that I could have imagined it. “No alcohol,” he said simply. “We’re having fun the old fashioned way.”

“I, for one, am excited,” Donahue grinned widely. “We have so many fun games lined up for you all, it’s going to be _such_ a good time! You excited, babe?” She elbowed Cook playfully. 

“Oh, I’m fucking _pumped!_ ” he agreed, jumping up and down a little. “The rewards for these games are beyond your imaginations.” 

I turned around and caught Albus’s eye. He raised an eyebrow at me and smiled slightly, looking amused. “Is he on some shit?” I mouthed. Albus rested his mouth against his fist to muffle a snigger before nodding at me. 

“I’m sure you’re wondering what the first game is, then,” Luke said loudly, shooting me an annoyed look when I turned back around. 

_There’s the prat I know and mostly tolerate._

“Meg?” He gestured to the small girl beside him. She really was tiny; I was surprised we were in the same year.

Meg Donahue stepped forward and held her hands behind her back, leaning forward in a very professor-like manner. “The first game will be a scavenger hunt. We’re going to split up into pairs and search the castle for hidden objects.” 

“How are we supposed to manage all this without getting caught?” Grace Cannon asked. “Aren’t there going to be professors patrolling?”

“Actually,” Cook smirked. “We have it on good authority that Headmaster McGonagall was called out of Hogwarts for some important business. And there were only four staff members left on the grounds- we slipped each one some sleeping potion, so they won’t be interrupting us tonight.”

_Well that’s not sketchy at all,_ I thought with a frown. 

Donahue held up a folder. “The lists of items are in here, sealed so that even we haven’t been able to see them. That way we get to play too.”

“Wait,” Albus called, sounding as confused as I felt. “Then who hid the stuff and wrote out the lists?”

She smiled secretively. “The club president. They’re waiting for us in the Astronomy Tower. The first pair to find all their items and bring them up there wins.”

“What’s the prize?” someone asked. 

“The prize will be announced when the game ends,” Luke answered for her. “Oh, and by the way, you’ll all be turning in your wands for the evening.”

“ _What?_ ” I hissed. I wasn’t the only one. Sounds of protests echoed around the room. 

“Calm down,” Luke held his hands up in a placating gesture. “You’ll get them back. We have to give ours up, too. This way no one can cheat or take advantage of their skill level. It puts us all on even footing.”

No one looked happy about giving up their wands, but one by one, we took turns reluctantly bringing ours up and dropping them into a bucket that was waiting on the front desk. 

Cook grinned broadly, wrapping an arm around Donahue. “If anyone manages to beat _us,_ ” he said, “I’ll be _very_ impressed.”

“We’re _very_ good,” Donahue agreed, looking at Cook as she spoke. 

“Very _very_ good.” He looked like he was seconds away from ravaging her. 

“I’m going to hurl,” Albus leaned forward to whisper to me. I hid my smirk in my hand, not wanting to piss off Luke too much with my lack of attention. 

“Alright everyone,” Luke rolled his eyes at his partners’ behavior. “Pair up and come grab a list.”

_Uh-oh. Who the fuck is going to partner up with me?_

I glanced around the room, watching people jump for their friends or the nearest in age. 

“We partners, Al?” I heard Jory ask Albus behind me. I swallowed a pang of disappointment. 

“Sorry, mate,” Albus responded. “I’ve got Hawke.”

_What?_

“What?” I said in surprise, spinning around and hopping off the desk. “Since when?”

“Since right now,” Albus smirked as he and Jory stood from their chairs. “Assuming you’re game, of course.”

“Uh- sure,” I said dumbly. Running around the castle at night with Albus Potter? Who the fuck would say no to that?

“Ditching me for a _girl,_ ” Jory said in mock outrage. “Unbelievable.”

“Right,” Albus snorted. “Because you wouldn’t have done the same.”

“Fair point,” Jory grinned. “Sure about him, Hawke? You can ditch him for me, if you’d like.” He wiggled his eyebrows at me suggestively, making me laugh. 

“Thanks, Zabini, but I’m going to pass,” I said with a feigned sad smile. 

“See mate?” Albus said arrogantly. “She knows a winning player when she sees one.”

“In your dreams, Al,” Jory shot back. “You’re going down.”

“You don’t even have a partner,” I pointed out, my hands on my hips.

“He does now,” came Luke’s voice. He looked thoroughly disappointed in who was left for him as he sauntered up to our small group. 

Jory didn’t look much happier. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“I wish, Zabini,” Luke scowled. “Look, let’s just agree to leave Quidditch out of this. It’s a whole new competition.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Jory muttered. “Fucking _great._ This is going to be a nightmare. You two better shut the fuck up!” He snapped at Albus and me, as we’d both erupted into sniggers at their situation. 

“Sorry, mate,” Albus shrugged, strolling to the front of the classroom to grab a list of items to find. “I’ve love to stick around and pity your sorry arse, but Mika and I have a game to win.”

Donahue handed a sealed page to Albus with a wide smile, Cook shooting him a finger gun. _What a pair,_ I thought. 

I followed Albus out the door, sending Jory a parting wave and a mocking crying gesture for good measure. I’ve never been the best sport. 

Albus and I made our way down the corridor as he opened up the parchment. “Are you as curious about who put this together as I am?” He asked. 

I shrugged, watching the floor as we walked. “I’m more curious about the rewards, honestly.”

“You would’ve made a good Slytherin,” Albus commented, smirking at me as we rounded a corner. 

I laughed at that. “I was very close to being put in Slytherin, but the hat said I was a little too bold, and not very ambitious.”

“Fair enough,” he grinned. “The first thing on our list is- what the hell?”

“What is it?” I asked, coming closer to gaze at the list. I blushed lightly as our arms brushed against each other. “A brewed Draught of Living Death? What happened to being on even-footing? The younger students won’t be able to do this.”

“Yeah, this sounds rigged,” Albus frowned at the parchment. “Oh well. To the dungeons?”

I nodded. “Sounds like it. We have some brewing to do.”

We started for the nearest stairs, and began our descent. “So you still wanted to stay here for the break, huh?” I asked. 

He grimaced. “Yeah. I mean I forgave Fred a while ago, but I don’t know. People in my family were a little quick to forgive and forget, and I didn’t like that they couldn’t really deal with me wanting to take some time to get over it.”

“I get that,” I said slowly. “So you’re more or less punishing them for that by staying here?”

“Exactly,” he agreed. 

“Because depriving people of your company is a punishment,” I then said, smirking. 

He laughed. “Absolutely, Hawke. What would you be doing this evening if I hadn’t stayed? It was in everyone’s best interest.”

“I’d probably just have partnered up with Jory,” I rolled my eyes. “I think I would have been alright.”

“He’d try to get in your pants all night,” Albus informed me as we started down another hallway. The castle wasn’t as dark as I’d expected it to be; candles were lit intermittently, giving us some dim lighting. 

“Well then it’s probably good that I’m wearing such thick heels,” I said thoughtfully. “They’d do an absolute number on his arse if he tried.”

“Bloody hell,” Albus chuckled. “That what they’re for, then? A defense mechanism?”

I laughed. “Totally. Not at all for the look.”

“So it’s just a fortune bonus that they make your legs look hot, then?” Albus grinned cheekily. I elbowed him, smiling nonetheless. The flush in my cheeks increased ten-fold. “Ow,” he moaned, holding his side. “Can’t even take a compliment.”

“I think that was more of a chat-up line than a complement,” I said wryly. 

“Well you’re blushing like crazy, so I’d reckon it worked rather well,” Albus pointed out, lifting a hand and brushing a knuckle against my cheek. 

I bit my lip to keep from grinning like a crazed loon. “I refuse to answer that,” I said stubbornly. 

Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on your point of view), we reached the Potions classroom by then, so I didn’t have to. 

“Alright,” Albus said, looking like he’d rather go back to our conversation. “I sort of remember what we need. I’m sure there are some spare textbooks around here somewhere, and ingredients down in the basement.”

“Right-” I started to agree, but my words were cut off at the sound of others coming. “We have company.”

“I hear Jory’s voice,” Albus whispered, looking excited. “Let’s hide, I want to scare the fucker.”

“ _Hide,_ where the fuck are we going to-?” Before I could finish my question, Albus grabbed my arm and tugged me after him into a nearby tall cupboard. I opened my mouth to yell at him but he clamped his hand over it before I could, using his other to pull the door shut. 

“This is ridiculous,” Jory was saying as their footsteps grew louder. I could hear them enter the room. “Why do we need to brew a potion for a scavenger hunt? Shouldn’t we just be grabbing little trinkets scattered about and be on our way?”

“Stop whining, Zabini,” came Luke’s voice. Through a tiny crack, I was able to peek at them. Luke leaned against a table, his elbows resting on the top, while Jory sorted through some of the potions supplies left on Slughorn’s desk at the front of the room. “It’s supposed to add to the experience.”

“These games were much less weird last year,” Jory mused. “You and your friends are making this club _shit,_ now.”

“Last year’s pricks didn’t understand how to run a good club,” Luke growled, looking surprisingly angry at such a small statement on Jory’s part. “We’re improving things around here.”

“Sure you are,” Jory snorted. He picked up a cauldron off Slughorn’s desk, placing it on one of the student ones. “Here. I’m not sure what ingredients we need, though.”

I wasn’t sure when Albus was planning on scaring the two. I wasn’t in any hurry, though. He was pressed against my back, closely, his arm still wrapped around my shoulders with his hand over my mouth. I could feel his chest rise and fall with every breath, and could smell some sort of soap on him. It was making me lightheaded. 

His head dipped slightly, and he lowered his mouth to my ear. “Shh,” he breathed into it, making me shudder. “Almost…” I swallowed hard as his lips brushed the edge of my ear, his breath tickling my neck.

_Sweet Circe, I could die like this._

I tried to concentrate on Jory and Luke outside, but it was becoming less and less feasible. Albus, at some point, seemed to notice what sort of effect he was having on me, as I could feel him smirk against my skin. 

Meanwhile, Jory was laying out ingredients to begin preparing their potion, while Luke searched Slughorn’s drawers for something. Whatever he was looking for, he seemingly found, because he started back toward his and Jory’s table. 

I missed what it was, however, as Albus began to drag his lips away from my ear- but not away from _me._ Instead, he lightly traced my jaw, his mouth just barely touching me. I was near _quivering_ , but I kept watching the other two as determined as I could. 

His hand that wasn’t over my mouth found my hip, effectively holding me in place against his body. 

_Good god._

Jory was bent over a textbook, while Luke glanced at his watch. 

Albus’s hand crept down my side, along my skirt, until he reached the end of it a little less than halfway down my thigh. 

Luke pulled out whatever he’d taken from Slughorn’s desk, though it was hard to tell what it was still. It was shiny, I was pretty sure, because it caught a gleam from the candlelight of the classroom. 

Albus played with the end of my skirt, teasingly. 

Luke raised his arm. 

_Is that a knife?_ I suddenly noticed. 

And then he brought his arm down quickly and powerfully, the knife plunging into Jory’s head. 

* * *

**A/N: Uh oh. Just as a future warning, all coming chapters will be much more brutal (I'll add warnings beforehand just in case). But YAY we've gotten to the meat of things!**

**Also, this was long, I know. The rest of the story will have normal length chapters now that introductions are done.**

**Let me know what you thought :) I appreciate any and all reviews!**

**_Disclaimer: Anything or anyone you recognize is JK Rowling's._ **


	4. WHAT THE F-

**A/N: Trigger warning: Blood/murder/death/swearing**

**Shit gets real!**

* * *

_WHAT THE FUCK!?_

I almost screamed- in fact I probably would have, if Albus hadn’t still had a hand over my mouth. His other hand withdrew from my leg to cover his own mouth. Evidently, he was watching the same scene as I had been. 

We both froze, struggling to keep our breathing under control, as we watched in horror. Blood pooled out of Jory’s head, his body slumped forward against the tabletop. Luke watched with a bored expression, the cauldron in front of him filling with Jory Zabini’s blood.

_Jory’s dead. Luke just killed Jory. HE KILLED HIM!_

I was going to hyperventilate. I was certain of it. I didn’t know what to do, or how to react, and honestly it was bloody lucky for that, because otherwise I probably would have thrown Albus’s arm away from me and screamed bloody murder. Literally. 

_Jory’s dead. Luke killed Jory. Luke’s a murderer._ Those thoughts swam through my head, mixed in with a repetitive mantra of, _what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck WHAT THE FUCK?_

Albus was trembling beside me. I’d almost forgotten that this wasn’t just an acquaintance of mine who’d been killed before our eyes- it’d also been his friend. His friend and roommate of over six years. I reached a hand over and grasped his shirt tightly, clinging to it. I didn’t know what else to do. Both of his hands were occupied, and we were in too awkward a position for me to try to put an arm around him. I simply clung to his shirt, feeling him shake. 

He buried his face in my hair, while I continued to stare out the crack of the cupboard to see what Luke would do next. 

Luke took a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped the blood off his knife’s blade before dabbing at the drops that had splattered on his face. 

“Thank Merlin,” he suddenly muttered. “The bloke was annoying.” He glanced around the blood stained table, floor, and chairs. “They can’t honestly expect _me_ to clean this up, can they?” he asked aloud, looking doubtful. Whatever other thoughts he had on what had just happened, he kept to himself. He simply shook his head at the sight before him before picking up the cauldron with the handkerchief as a mitt of sorts. 

Without another word, he left the classroom. 

Not wanting to chance him coming back and discovering us, Albus and I remained still for at least a couple minutes. Finally, we looked at each other and nodded once. I quietly pushed open the door, and we stepped outside. 

“Holy fucking shit,” Albus whispered, looking at Jory’s blood-soaked body miserably. “He was my mate.” 

I place a hand on his shoulder, saying nothing. With grief, sometimes there just wasn’t anything to say. I knew that firsthand. 

“I can’t believe this,” Albus said, his voice hoarse. His eyes were red, his expression haunted. 

“Why would Finnegan do this?” I voiced the question that had been in my head since the second knife had gone down. 

Albus shook his head. “I can’t imagine it was Quidditch. There’s no way he’d murder someone over a _school rivalry._ Fuck. _Fuck_ , I can’t believe this. Fuck.”

“I know,” I said quietly. “And I agree, I don’t think it was that. Do you think those other two-”

“Cook and Donahue?” Albus finished miserably. “Maybe.”

“He took the cauldron of blood,” I recalled, my stomach lurching. “ _Shit,_ I might throw up.”

“Please don’t,” Albus whispered. “If you puke, I’ll puke.”

“I’ll try,” I frowned, holding my head steady to get the world to stop spinning. “What the fuck is happening?”

“I probably should’ve gone home for Christmas,” Albus muttered. 

He was right, of course, but a selfish piece of me was happy to have him with me. I wasn’t sure how I’d survive this night on my own. 

“What do we do?” I asked softly. 

He shook his head, looking lost. “Hell if I know. I still don’t understand why this happened. Or why he took the cauldron of blood.”

“Maybe he was thirsty.” Albus shot me a scathing look, and I winced. “Sorry,” I said. “I don’t know how to deal with this sort of thing.”

“Me neither,” he sighed. “ _Fuck_ , I don’t know what to do. They have our wands.”

“We could make for the exit,” I suggested. “If we can get to the Quidditch pitch and grab our brooms, we’re home free.”

“I’m open to trying,” Albus said slowly, “but what if they locked the doors?”

“Then we’re fucked,” I shrugged. “But no more than if we sit around here waiting for someone to find us.”

Albus suddenly looked like someone had slapped him. “Wait a second,” he hissed. “I have something that could help. But we need to get to my dorm.”

I looked at him sharply. “Are you mad? What if they catch us?”

“If we can get to my dorm, it won’t matter,” he said confidently. “They won’t find us. Not if we make it there.”

I stared at him for a moment, trying to decide whether to trust him. Not that I thought he’d _murder_ me any time soon- based on his reaction to Jory, he was either a really, _really_ good actor or genuinely had no part in this- but I needed to decide if I could trust him with both of our lives at that moment. 

_Could I?_

Ultimately, I realized that I was out of options. 

“Alright,” I said at last. “Let’s get to your dorm.”

“It’s not far,” he murmured. “Come on.”

We crept out the door, that Luke had left open to my relief. I didn’t want to have to deal with old, creaky doors that would alert any more bonkers murderers to our location. 

I felt like a fraud of a Gryffindor with how terrified I was. It must have shown, too, as Albus slid his hand into mine after a couple seconds and gave it a light squeeze. I smiled at him gratefully. 

Together, we started down the corridor. I had a vague idea where the Slytherin common room was, having been there with Scorpius a few times, but I was mostly relying on Albus to get us there. 

We turned a few corners, Albus peeking his head around each time before nodding to me to signal the route was clear. I walked on my toes, not wanting the heels to give away our steps. 

“You should probably take those off,” Albus whispered, looking down at my feet. 

“These were _expensive!_ ”

Soon, we reached what looked to me like a dead end; we were face to face with a wall of stones. I’d been at this point before though and knew it was the entrance. 

“ _Basilisk,_ ” Albus said quickly, and the stones folded over each other to reveal the passageway down to the common room. 

He grabbed my hand again and tugged me along beside him as we hurried inside. The door to the common room was a little too loud for comfort, so we spent the walk to his dorm looking over our shoulder in case someone else had followed us. 

“Do you know if anyone else from your house was staying over the break?” I whispered to Albus as we started up the stairs to his dorm. 

“Other than Jory, I’m not sure,” Albus breathed back. “I think I saw a First Year and a Second Year from my house at that meeting. I’d reckon they probably paired up and went off for the scavenger hunt.”

I frowned. “I can’t even imagine _considering_ killing an eleven- or twelve-year-old.”

“I once pondered strangling Molly when she was twelve,” Albus shrugged. “But I was only nine, so I imagine it wouldn’t have worked out in my favor.”

I snorted as he pushed open the door to his dorm hesitantly. “Anyone there?” I whispered a little loudly. 

He raised an eyebrow. “Luckily for you, no. Work on your stealth voice, Hawke.”

“Sorry,” I rolled my eyes and followed him inside. “I’m still a little new to sneaking around a castle with murderers on the loose.”

He grinned crookedly at me over his shoulder as he knelt over his trunk. “Do you think I’m not?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know what you crazy Slytherins get up to on a regular basis.”

He just shook his head before pulling something out of his trunk. “Here we go. Invisibility cloak.”

My jaw dropped. “You have one of those?”

“Family secret,” he winked. “Don’t tell anyone.” He also pulled out a piece of parchment. “I have this, too, but it’s not really going to be any help to us currently.”

“What is it?” I furrowed my eyebrows. It just looked like old, warn parchment to me.”

“The Marauders Map. It’s a map of the school,” Albus murmured. “It’ll show where everyone is at all times.”

“Holy _shit,_ ” I whisper-exclaimed. “You fucking Potters get all the cool stuff, no wonder your dad was saving the school left and right back in the day.”

He sniggered. “Absolutely. It was the stuff. Well, and a lot of help from others.”

“So why wouldn’t the map be of help to us right now?” I asked. 

“We need a wand,” he explained. “You hold a wand to it and say, ‘I solemnly swear that I am up to no good,’ and the map unseals itself.”

I groaned. “Great. And the fuckers out there took ours.”

“They did,” Albus smiled wryly. “Any ideas?”

“We could go back to the charms classroom?” I suggested. “I doubt the box of wands would have been just left in there, but worth looking, maybe.”

He nodded. “Good plan. We have the cloak, so as long as we’re quiet, they won’t be finding us anytime soon-”

_Thunk!_

His words were cut off abruptly as something large flew across the room and struck Albus in the head. 

“Urg-” he groaned, holding his head before stumbling over. He wasn’t quite unconscious, but he looked thoroughly dazed. Blood trickled from a gash in the side of his head as he slumped against the bed. 

Beside him, a trophy lay on the floor, some blood shining on its golden exterior. 

_Shit._

I turned toward the doorway with wide eyes. Meg fucking Donahue stood in the entrance to the dorm with a wide smirk and a knife drawn. 

_That tiny fucking girl chucked a trophy hard enough to take out Albus?_

Meg continued to smile her twisted smile at me. “Evening,” she greeted, sounding annoyingly pleasant. “I hope I wasn’t interrupting any particularly fun bedroom activities.”

I watched her carefully, trying to come up with some sort of semblance of a plan. I opted to stall her. “Well, as fun as that would probably have been, watching someone get stabbed in the head was a bit of a mood killer.”

“I’d imagine,” she nodded in understanding. “Who died?”

“Jory.”

“Zabini?” She raised her eyebrows, twirling the knife around. “Makes sense, Luke’s not a half patient bloke, is he? I don’t know how you deal with him as a captain.”

I shrugged. “Meditation?”

“That’s bollocks.”

“You’re right,” I conceded. “It mostly just entails a lot of vivid daydreams about him falling off his broom in a tragic Bludger accident.”

“How very tragic indeed,” Meg continued to smile, unnerving me. 

_What the fuck am I supposed to fight that knife with?_ I thought desperately. _My fucking hopes and dreams? I need a weapon!_

My eyes drifted toward the trophy on the floor beside the half-conscious Albus. He hadn’t passed out, which was a good sign, but he was still likely going to be thoroughly useless to me for the next few minutes. 

Meg started to advance toward me with the knife, while I backed up until I hit a wall. I regretted it immediately- for one thing, I was backed into a corner. For another, she was now right next to Albus. 

She bent down, examining him, while running the tip of the knife down his cheek teasingly. A small trace of blood followed, as did Albus’s wince, but she wasn’t making any effort to actually kill him yet. 

I seethed as I watched her brush his blood soaked hair back. 

_Paws off, bitch, don't you have a boyfriend?_

“He’s cute,” Meg commented, looking back at me. “I might keep him alive a little longer to just have some fun with him. You, however, are of no use to me.”

Before I could think much more, Meg sprung forward, her knife clenched in her fist. She let out a growl of sorts as she ran at me, her arm raising. 

_Shit, shit, shit-_

I grabbed her arm in the air, pushing back against her with as much strength as I could muster. Seekers aren’t exactly the most _muscular_ players, but I had to be more in shape than this twig. 

She proved surprisingly strong though as she pushed back, her other arm reaching for my throat. 

“Fucking bitch,” she hissed, still fighting to drive down the knife. 

I could feel a bead of sweat drip down my face as I pushed back against her, struggling to catch my breath as her talons dug into my neck. 

Gasping, I kicked her in the shin as hard as I could. 

Meg cried out, dropping just enough for me to tackle her around her middle. The knife fell out of her hand a few feet away, out of reach from us both. We wrestled on the floor, elbowing, pinching, biting, and kicking as we tried to beat the other to the knife. I winced when she dropped her elbow on my wrist, the bony little _bint_. 

Finally, she made a slip up, rolling us closer to Albus as an attempt to get to the knife again. This put me within arm’s reach of the trophy. 

I reached for it, despite her efforts to pin me against the floor. I drove a knee up into her stomach, making her grunt loudly, before wrapping my fingers around the trophy. 

With all the power I could muster, I slammed it forward at her face, clubbing her across the cheek. 

She rolled off of me onto the floor, but I couldn’t take the chance that she was still alive, so I climbed on top of her and hit her again. And again. And again. 

I may have fallen into a bit of a manic fit. 

“Fuck you,” I cried, hitting her with the trophy, blood splattering up at me each time. “You fucking smirking, fake, bitchy, cunt munch piece of _shit!_ ”

“Mika.”

I stopped, my arm raised to hit her again. His voice, soft and strained, shook me out of my episode. I stared down at Meg Donahue in horror, realizing what I had done.

Her face was thoroughly bashed in, to the extent that I might not even have realized who she was if I hadn’t already known. Her features were indistinguishable, blood soaking the floor beneath her smashed head. 

I threw myself off of her and backed away, huddling against the wall. My wrist ached. The trophy landed on the floor and rolled away from me while I sat there trembling. 

“Mika,” Albus said again, still holding his head, staring at me wide-eyed. 

“Jesus,” I whispered, unable to tear my eyes away from the mess I’d made. 

Albus crawled toward me, which looked hard to do with one hand still holding pressure over the cut on his head. His face and clothes were stained with blood, I could see it all over his white button-up and green tie. 

He reached my side and slung his other arm around my shoulders while I fell sideways against him, shaking but not crying. I felt too numb for tears, though my eyes burned like I _should_ have been sobbing. 

“I _killed_ her,” I whispered against his chest, not caring that I was probably just making it even more of a bloody mess. Fuck, we were a disaster. 

“You had to,” Albus reasoned, rubbing my arm soothingly. “They’re trying to kill _us,_ remember? She nearly had me, too. You saved us.”

“I bashed her fucking head in like a maniac,” I said quietly, still staring. 

“You saved us, Mika,” Albus said again. “She would have killed you. And me.”

I took an unsteady breath, nodding. “You’re right. You’re right. _Fuck._ You’re right.” _If I say it enough, maybe it’ll stick eventually._

“We’re going to get out of this,” Albus assured me, still rubbing my arm. I continued to nod against him, letting him soothe me to a somewhat more stable mentality. 

“Alright,” I eventually sighed, sitting up, though putting pressure down on my left wrist was killer. “I’m alright.” Yeah fucking right I’m alright. But I suppose this is as good as it’s going to get.

“You sure?” he frowned, looking at me skeptically. “Your wrist is hurting, isn’t it?”

“I have to be,” I shrugged. “Are _you_ alright? You looked like you were going to be down for the count a couple minutes ago.”

Albus nodded. “I’m better now. It wasn’t as bad as it seemed, it just sort of stunned me for a bit.”

“You could have a concussion,” I pointed out. “Or brain damage.”

“My cousins would tell you I already have brain damage,” he smiled slightly. I returned it, appreciating his efforts to lift the mood. “And honestly, I think I’m fine. I would’ve thrown up if it were serious.”

_Speaking of throwing up-_

I promptly jumped away from him to save him from what was about to happen before turning away and vomiting onto the floor. I felt a twinge of guilt as I realized someone’s shoe had unfortunately been in the splash zone.

“Bloody hell!” Albus yelped. He rushed over to rub my back. Thank god I’d worn my hair up that evening. “Er- there, there.”

“There, there?” I questioned, amused. I grabbed a pair of sweatpants lying on the floor near me and wiped my mouth on them. Gross? Probably, but there was a pool of blood spreading across the dorm and vomit on someone’s shoe, so it was hardly worth fussing over. 

He smiled sheepishly. “I’m not sure how to comfort someone in this type of situation, believe it or not.”

I laughed despite myself. “Definitely a lot of ‘firsts’ going down for me tonight.” I turned back toward Meg’s body, feeling a lot better now that I’d gotten to puking out of the way. “So… what do we do about her?”

Albus frowned. “I have no idea.I’m worried someone will find her- namely _Cook_ \- and put together who killed her. We don’t need more defined targets on our backs right now.”

I looked around. “Alright… I mean, we could move her under a bed or something. It’s going to be messy though.”

He shrugged. “Our dorm’s always a mess, we’ll just have to throw more clothes over the blood.”

I sighed. “I miss my wand. How do Muggles commit clean murders?”

He snorted. “Well, I’d imagine they use more efficient methods than bashing someone’s skull in.”

I wrinkled my nose.

He smiled apologetically. “Too soon?”

“A little, I’d reckon.”

I couldn't hold it against him- I’d been just as useless at consoling him after Jory died. 

We both stood and surveyed the area, before Albus pulled a blanket off of Jory’s bed- since he’d hardly need it anymore- and I helped him wrap it around Meg’s body. It picked up a good amount of blood, which was helpful, but there was still a large pool remaining. 

“Er- okay, so we roll her under?” I asked, trying not to hurl again.

“Yeah,” Albus grunted, looking as uncomfortable and nauseous as I felt. 

“Great,” I mumbled. Awkwardly, I hooked my arms underneath the dead girl, Albus doing the same down by her legs. It proved to be difficult to roll her, with clothes and trunks and- _Christ, is that brain?_ \- strewn about the floor, so we wound up simply sliding her across the floor and under Jory’s bed. 

“Gross, gross, gross,” I squirmed. “Ew.”

Albus was wiping his hands off on his pants, apparently realizing there was no point in avoiding the mess since he was already proper bloody. “Well I think it’s safe to say that this is the worst night of my life,” he decided. 

I let out a humorless laugh. “Believe it or not, this is still second-worst for me.”

“What the _fuck_ was worse than this?”

I didn’t answer him, instead focusing on throwing clothes and pillows and blankets about the room to hide the spilled fluids. 

“Mika?” Albus tried again.

I sighed. “Forget it. Just help me with this.”

He looked like he wanted to press the matter, but he dropped it to my relief, and helped me cover everything up.

By the time we were done, it was mostly just messy. There was visible blood, but someone would really have to look for it. At a passing glance, it was fine. 

“So now what?” Albus asked. “We hop under the cloak and look for our wands?”

I frowned. “We should probably check the exits first. If it comes down between leaving and getting my wand, I’d rather leave. If we could get out of the castle and make it to Hogsmeade, we’d be set.”

“Same,” Albus agreed. “Alright, come on then.” He reached out a hand, which I took, and pulled me close to him, throwing the cloak over our heads. We had to huddle quite a bit for it to fit us both, but we were covered. 

“Oh wait,” I said, ducking out for a moment to grab the knife that had been buried under someone’s trousers. There was a pivot where the blade met the hilt that allowed me to bend it down, and I tucked it away in my pocket. I’d been regretting my outfit choice all evening- the black denim skirt and boots combo might have looked cute, but it didn’t do much for stealth and fighting- but at least I had pockets. 

“So no one can see us this way?” I whispered as we headed out the door and started down the stairs.

He shook his head. “We’re completely invisible. Just have to stay quiet.”

 _That’s probably good,_ I thought. _I’m not really fancying a chat after what just happened up there._

We crept out of the dungeons together, first leaving the common room and then heading up toward the Entrance Hall. 

_Please be unlocked,_ I thought. _Please._

It was a fruitless effort, of course, to waste my hope on those stupid bloody doors. By the time we got up there we realized that they were, in fact, locked. 

“Shit,” I hissed. 

“Wait,” Albus whispered sharply. “The passageways. We can find those.”

“What passageways?”

“There are a few that lead out of the school,” Albus explained quickly. “They show up on the map, and they’ll lead to Hogsmeade. I totally forgot.”

“ _Are you shitting me Al, that’s important fucking information to forget-_ ”

My admonishment was cut short when we heard voices, and I clamped a hand over my mouth to keep myself quiet. 

Two students were running in our direction, coming from the nearest staircase. 

“No, I’m telling you, we lost them,” one was panting to the other. As they got closer, I recognized one of them as my roommate Anna’s brother, Edward. He had partnered with a Fifth Year girl from my house. 

“Are you sure?” the girl asked, looking frantic. “Because that guy had a freaking _axe!_ ”

“I’m pretty sure I’ve seen Hagrid use that same axe on pumpkins,” Edward frowned. “That guy must have nicked it.”

“Who gives a shit where he got it, Ed?” the girl demanded. “ _He’s trying to kill us with it!_ ”

Edward, meanwhile, was trying to pull open the doors. “Crap, crap, crap.”

“They’re locked?” the girl asked with wide eyes. 

“Evidently,” Edward replied, rolling his eyes. 

_These two aren’t handling their panic very well. You shouldn’t take it out on your partner._

Because I could talk. I was a master of ease and composure in a high-stress situation, obviously. 

“So what now?” the Gryffindor girl asked. 

Edward looked helpless. “Maybe if we could find some of the others, they could-”

“OI!”

The two turned sharply, looking horror stricken at the call. Simon Cook descended the stairs, slowly and dramatically, slinging an axe over his shoulder. I gripped Albus’s hand tighter than I ought to have, but I was scared. He squeezed me back. 

Edward and the Gryffindor girl were stuck, their backs to the sealed doors as they faced the massive Seventh Year coming down toward them. 

“Alright, kiddos?” Cook asked, smirking. “You look a little frantic, there.”

“Back off,” the girl growled at him, taking a step forward. I appreciated her spunk. 

He raised an eyebrow. “Oh? You going to take on my friend here?” He lifted his axe from his shoulder and held the flat part of it against his cheek. “Mmm, nice and cold, I like that.”

_Fucking lunatic._

“What do you _want_ from us?” Edward demanded. 

Cook snorted as he reached the bottom of the stairs and continued forward until he was only a few meters away. For him, that was probably only four or five strides. 

“I _want_ your blood,” Cook sneered. “I want it splattered across my axe so I can _lick it off_ and bring your lifeless bodies upstairs to get on with the ritual.” 

_Fucking ew, mate._

Albus and I looked at each other apprehensively. 

“Ritual?” Albus mouthed silently.

I just shrugged, frowning. 

_Fan-fucking-tastic. So these aren’t just normal drugged up, hyperactive, unhinged, murderous psychopaths, but they’re fucking CULTISH LUNATICS as well!_

Nothing puts a damper on your evening like finding out you’re up against a bunch of idiots with hard-ons for Satan. Those fuckers are bonkers. 

Cook held his axe out, ready to start swinging, and started for the two trapped Fifth Years. 

My eyes widened, Jory’s lifeless body flashing through my mind. I hadn’t expected Luke to murder him, there was nothing I could do. This time, however…

Cook continued until he passed us, and that was when I made a somewhat impulsive decision. I slipped out from under the cloak, ignoring Albus’s intake of breath and his attempts to grab me. 

Cook had just raised his axe when I ran up from behind him and kicked upwards, as hard as I possibly could, and felt a satisfying connection with his crotch. 

“AH, what the _fuck?_ ” Simon Cook shouted, falling to his knees. 

Edward and the girl stared at me in utter shock- to their defense, I had just come from nowhere to them.

In a perfectly controlled tone, being the level-headed adult present, I screamed at the top of my lungs:

“RUN!” 

* * *

**A/N: Well that was wild.**

**"Nothing puts a damper on your evening like finding out you’re up against a bunch of idiots with hard-ons for Satan" is not a sentence I ever thought I'd find myself writing out.**

**I hope you don't hate me for the little cliff-hanger again, I have a bad habit with those. Anywho, let me know what you think!!!! Things have gone full on bat-shit crazy now. Cook's a maniac and Meg's a piece of shit (a dead one) and yay for Mika saving those two others! I'm having so much fun writing this story, I have a whole Spotify playlist dedicated to it.**

**Reviews are always appreciated :) Formatting might have been weird with the spaces but there's so much of it that I have to hope it's passable cause it takes so long to fix and I'm a little drunk. ANYWAY let me know what you thought :D**

**_Disclaimer: Anything you recognize is JK Rowling's._ **


	5. A New Hiding Place

**Warnings: blood, death, language, drugs**

* * *

“RUN!”

Regaining some sense, Edward and the Gryffindor girl both turned and took off together down the corridor. Cook was still groaning on the ground, clutching at his crotch, but he whipped his gaze toward me and I saw a look of such pure loathing and hatred that it made the hairs on my neck and arms stand up. 

Turning, I noticed Albus had surfaced from the cloak. I ran forward, grabbing his hand and hauling him with me in the opposite direction. 

Simon Cook may have been huge and hyped up on drugs, but Albus and I were leaner and quicker. We ran for a while, turning around a corner. Albus glanced back once to verify we had time to pause to put the cloak on and then threw the fabric back over our heads. 

Neither of us dared to speak a word, not while we could hear Cook’s footsteps approaching fast. Albus wrapped an arm around me and pulled me to the side of the corridor, where we huddled against a wall, quiet and invisible. I kept a hand over my mouth, trying to keep my panting down. 

_Fucking piece of shit cult freaks,_ I thought. _I was supposed to spend the break sulking in the kitchens with treacle tarts and hot chocolate. The biggest risk I’d intended on taking was_ maybe _dying the tips of my hair pink!_

Cook ran by without so much as a glance, to my immediate relief. I could feel Albus breathing shakily beside me and wished so badly that I could know what he was thinking. Was he freaking out as badly as I was? I was the Gryffindor here, shouldn’t I have been a little braver in this sort of situation?

We waited another minute or so before we chanced walking again. 

“I think we’re clear,” Albus said at last. “Up to the Charms classroom, then?”

I nodded, my breathing returning to some semblance of normal- as normal as it could be, all things considered. “Yeah, let’s go.”

“It’s on the same floor as the One-Eyed Witch Passage,” Albus whispered. “We can check the classroom first and then pop over to the passage.”

“Sounds good.”

We continued in silence up two sets of staircases until we reached the third floor. I didn’t see any sign of Cook, other students, or other murderers on our way there, which unnerved me. I hoped Edward, Anna, and all the others were alright. 

Heading down the third floor corridor, however, we came across a massive problem. 

Two people were up ahead, far enough away and in dull enough lighting that I couldn’t make out their identities. 

I grabbed Albus around the wrist and we both froze. The two people were leaning against a wall- directly beside the statue of Gunhilda de Gorsemoor, the One-Eyed Witch.

“Shit,” Albus breathed.

We veered to the right, hurrying as quietly as possible down a different corridor until we found an abandoned classroom with an open door. 

Albus and I slipped inside and carefully closed the door, luckily avoiding any creaks or thuds. 

We threw the cloak off our heads. “Shit,” Albus hissed, starting to pace. “Shit, what are they doing there?”

“They’re babysitting the passage,” I whispered back. “At least, it looks that way to me.”

“That’s impossible,” he insisted. “They shouldn’t know about it. We’ve only ever kept those passages within the family, same with the map and the cloak.”

I paused, his words giving me an idea. “Hey Al… what do you think Meg Donahue was doing searching the Seventh Year Boys dorm in the dungeons?”

He shrugged. “Looking for students, I figured.”

I shook my head. “Do you still have the list of scavenger hunt things?”

He looked at me strangely before pulling out the parchment from his pocket and handing it to me. The outside was stained with blood a little, but as I unrolled it, I found the inside perfectly legible. 

I scanned it briefly. “Al, there’s nothing on here that would give _anyone_ a reason to be in the Slytherin Seventh Year Boys’ dorm. They shouldn’t have thought to look for us there if they didn’t think we were onto them about trying to kill us.”

He closed his eyes, holding a hand to his temple. “So she was there for something else.”

“Potentially the cloak?” I ventured. “Maybe even the map?”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Albus said, sounding like he was trying to convince himself as much as me. “Only family knows.”

“Then someone blabbed,” I reasoned. “Someone had to have let those things slip.”

“Those are important things,” Albus snapped in a harsh whisper. “I can’t think of a single family member who’d tell _anyone_ about any of our family secrets.”

“Then how do those assholes out there know about them?” I demanded. 

“ _Fuck_ ,” Albus groaned. “This is so bad.”

“Do you think all the passages are being watched?” I wondered. 

“Probably,” Albus said. “Fuck, Mika, I have no idea what we’re going to do.”

I shrugged sadly. “We need our wands.”

He nodded, taking another deep breath. “Alright. We need to get by them to get to the Charms classroom though.”

“Any ideas as to how we do that?” I asked. 

Albus leaned against a desk, running his hand through his hair, wincing when his hand brushed the cut from Meg’s trophy toss. 

I frowned and moved to sit atop the desk at his side. “Careful,” I said softly, reaching for his hand and lowering it gently. 

“I can’t believe a 5-foot-tall girl with toothpick arms nearly knocked me out,” he murmured, turning his hand over to hold mine too. 

I smiled slightly. “To be fair, I _wrestled_ her and barely won.”

“I don’t know if I’d say _barely,_ ” he mused, leaning his head over to rest on my shoulder. His hair, even messier than usual, 

“Shut up,” I mumbled. 

“I feel so emasculated,” he smiled wryly. 

I bit my lip to resist laughing. “You make a nice damsel in distress.”

He rolled his head up to smile at me. “Yeah? I feel very damsellike. Nice and pretty in my blood-soaked shirt and sweat-covered head.”

“And yet somehow you still kind of smell good,” I muttered, narrowing my eyes. 

“ _Me?_ ” He raised his eyebrows. “You still sort of smell like marshmallows, and I can see the sweat dripping down your face so I’m not sure how that’s possible.”

“We should definitely both smell like dried blood and vomit,” I agreed. “Clearly we’ve both been overdoing our cologne and perfume.”

He let out a hushed, breathy laugh, turning his face down to muffle it with my shoulder. 

“Mika,” he whispered after a beat. 

“Yeah?”

“If I had to outrun ritual-performing murderers in the middle of the night with anyone, I’m glad it’s been with you,” Albus said softly, lifting his head from my shoulder. 

I smiled. “I’m glad too, Al.”

He raised an eyebrow. “I’ve offered almost nothing of use.”

I stared at him. “Minus an _invisibility cloak_ you mean? Besides, your company’s enough.”

He smirked. “That right?”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, idiot. I was looking forward to being your scavenger hunt partner.” 

Albus looked thrilled. “I was fucking _chuffed_ when you walked through the door earlier. I thought these two weeks would be at best some alone time to think and maybe read a book, but then you showed up-”

“And suddenly it was _oh shit I’m going to bone Mika Hawke?_ ” I joked. 

“More or less,” he grinned cheekily. I blushed again and elbowed him lightly. “I can’t say I ever really thought, ‘Oh, brilliant, going to outrun some psycho killers with Mika Hawke.’ Definitely figured we’d snog at some point, but I couldn’t think much past that without someone _noticing,_ if you catch my drift.”

I elbowed him again. “Perve, I was kidding.”

“Come off it,” he smirked again. “You thought the same thing.”

“Technically, I thought it wasn’t worth entertaining the idea,” I admitted, blushing fiercely. “You are _very_ out of my league.”

“That’s a load of bollocks,” he rolled his eyes. “You’re _gorgeous,_ Mika.”

I smiled slightly. “I have blood splattered across my face.”

Albus simply shrugged. “Exactly. If you’re still hot when covered in blood and _definitely_ bruising from the Meg dilemma, imagine how into you blokes are on a regular basis.”

“I’m bruising?” I frowned, poking at the sore spot on my cheek. “That fucking _cunt._ ”

Albus grabbed my fingers to stop me from touching the bruise. It was weird- we’d been in close quarters together all evening, yet suddenly I was becoming _hyper_ aware of our proximity. We’d been a little- er- distracted since that moment we’d had in the Potions cupboard, what with people dying and all. This was the first moment we’d had together since then where we could actually think about anything other than death. 

Albus leaned forward and lightly brushed his lips against my cheek bruise as my breath caught. The classroom wasn’t lit, so the color of his eyes wasn’t as vivid as usual, but the look in them was piercing enough. 

He tilted his head down toward mine again, this time brushing my lips- 

_CRASH!_

We jerked apart and froze. Something had made a huge, crashing sound just outside the classroom. 

“Jesus, Cook, calm down!” came Luke’s voice. Albus and I exchanged a nervous look. Silently, we lifted ourselves from the desk and backed up toward the wall cautiously. Albus threw the cloak over our heads, and just in time too, because it was only about ten seconds later that the door to our empty classroom flew open. 

“I can’t find her anywhere!” Cook growled as the two of them barreled into the room. “Meg was supposed to be back by now.”

“Where’d you last see her?” Luke asked. He looked somewhat exasperated, a little bored, and a lot like a douche. 

“Downstairs,” Cook frowned. He still had his trusty axe with him, only at that moment he dropped it onto the floor. 

He hooked a hand under one of the desks and threw it over with another resounding crash. I flinched and Albus quickly grabbed my hand. I wrapped my other hand around his arm and clung to him, my heart in my throat. 

“Would you knock it off?” Luke rolled his eyes. “Throwing tables isn’t going to find Meg, and it’s just going to alert any lurkers that we’re nearby.”

Cook rounded on Luke with a glare. “I’m sorry for being fucking _pissed_ that, not only is my girlfriend missing, but Potter and that Hawke slag are running around here _vigilante style_ and fucking _ruining our_ _plans._ ”

_Slag? Fuck you, Cook, your dead girlfriend’s the slag!_

Luke rubbed his temple tiredly. “Hawke got one lucky kick in and yelled ‘Run.’ That hardly counts as vigilante work.” He sat on the professor’s desk by the board at the front of the room. “And we have all of tomorrow to find Potter and Hawke anyway, the ritual doesn’t have to be done until tomorrow night. It’s Monday morning when we’re fucked.”

Albus and I exchanged another uneasy glance. 

“Still,” Cook muttered. “Meg should have shown up somewhere by now. She was supposed to grab the cloak and that map of theirs and meet us up here.”

“Did you check the Slytherin dorms?” Luke asked lazily, playing with a pocketknife like it was a fucking fidget spinner. 

“Yeah,” Cook frowned. “I mean I glimpsed inside, but I didn’t see anyone in there.”

I let out a silent breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. He hadn’t seen Meg’s body. That was a plus- we did _not_ need an extra pissed off Simon Cook. The idiot really must not have looked very closely if he didn’t see any blood or find the mess of clothes and pillows all over the floor to be weird. 

_Thank Godric for drugs, I suppose?_

“She probably found a straggler,” Luke shrugged. “I’m sure she’s fine.”

“They’re onto us now, though,” Cook pointed out. “Hawke and Potter saw me try to axe that Hufflepuff and the Gryffindor girl.”

Luke looked irritated. “You mentioned that. You know who’s going to be _pissed_ if that information makes it up the tower?”

Cook glared at him. “Sod off, Finnegan. I’ll kill them before word gets out.”

“I hope so,” Luke rolled his eyes. “I’ve seen Hawke angry, and it’s not really something I care to be on the other side of. And that’s just from Quidditch- we haven’t seen her properly motivated yet.”

_Damn right! Fucking fight me, you bitch!_

“She’s nothing,” Cook snorted. “I can take her. Hell, I wouldn’t even the axe, I could probably break her neck in one go.”

I instinctively shrugged my shoulders up, as if to protect my neck. Albus gripped my hand more tightly. 

“You shouldn’t, though,” Luke warned. “She’s wanted alive until the end.”

I furrowed my eyebrows and looked at Albus again. They wanted me _alive?_ No one told Meg that, apparently. 

“Bollocks,” Cook mumbled. “I’m still ruddy pissed at her for kicking me. Those stupid boots of hers are massive.”

I smiled smugly, suddenly feeling very pleased with my choice of shoes. _I hope I ruined your balls, prick, because the world does not need you passing on your genes._

“Believe me,” Luke snorted. “I’d like her dead too. Won’t do my Quidditch team much good, but she mouths off every practice.”

_BECAUSE YOU’RE A SHIT CAPTAIN, LUKE!_

“How alive does she need to be?” Cook smiled slightly. “Can I take off a limb?”

Luke shook his head. “Doubtful. She’s wanted alive and in as good of a condition as we can manage.”

Cook looked extremely disappointed. “Whatever. I’ll kill Potter, then. That’ll hold me over.”

Under the Invisibility Cloak, Albus threw Cook a middle finger. 

“He’s all yours,” Luke nodded. “I already got to kill one irritating Slytherin, and it wasn’t as exciting as I thought it’d be. Let’s get going. The passages and Room of Requirement are covered, but we need to keep the halls under patrol.”

_Shit. So there are more people watching the exits._

“They’re probably under that stupid cloak,” Cook pointed out.

“Then we wait until they fuck up and make noise,” Luke shrugged, unperturbed. “They _constantly_ looked like they want to shag each other at his birthday, I’m sure they’ll cave at some point and make noise then.”

My face burned, and it took everything in my power not to look at Albus. I know we’d already talked about that somewhat, and almost kissed before the interruption, but it was still embarrassing to have it acknowledged by these pricks. 

Cook snorted. “Probably won’t have much of a time window then- I don’t see Potter lasting long.”

I bit my lip to avoid sniggering at that one, and this time I chanced a look to my right. Albus might have been blushing- it was hard to tell under the dried blood- and he was very deliberately not looking at me. 

“Probably not,” Luke chortled. “Let’s just go, we’re wasting time in here.”

“One second.”

Cook took something out of his pocket- a small bag of some sort of powdery sub- 

_Oh, yup, that’s cocaine,_ I realized as the behemoth of a Ravenclaw snorted a line right off the side of his hand. He shook his head vigorously and grinned broadly. Fucking _bonkers_ that bloke was.

“Want any?” he held the bag out to Luke, who simply rolled his eyes, shook his head, and started for the door. Cook shrugged, grabbed his axe, and followed. 

They left the classroom, leaving the door open on their way out. 

Albus and I didn’t move- we _couldn’t,_ not yet. If we made a sound before they were out of earshot, we’d be dead. I racked my brain, trying to think of where we could go where we’d be able to talk, but I kept coming up short. How was it this hard to hide in a bloody giant castle?

I thought about the kitchens, which seemed like a good choice. It felt like such an obvious place for them to find us, though. I wished the house elves stayed for the break- they could have apparated us out of here.

The library was another option, but I couldn’t think of a single reason why we’d want to be holed up there. The Prefects’s Bathroom wouldn’t work, as Luke was Quidditch captain and therefore had access to it. Would he think to check there? I wasn’t sure, but it didn’t really seem worth the risk to stash ourselves in the baths. 

The Hospital Wing was a particularly tempting option. I wanted to get Albus’s head patched up and look for healing potions. It felt like the type of place that would be heavily guarded, but as far as they knew, we weren’t hurt and would therefore have no reason to go there. 

It seemed like the most promising place to go. 

My biggest concern was Simon Cook, easily. He was large, drugged up, and actually very intelligent, unless the drugs hindered that sort of thing. I couldn’t really say, having no experience with fucking coke. 

Still, between Cook and Luke, Cook worried me much, much more. He could potentially guess at checking the hospital wing, he was the size of a mountain, and he sounded rather desperate to find his girlfriend that I had bludgeoned and stuffed under a bed. Luke was just an apathetic dick. 

I had no idea who the two guys by the statue were, or how many other people could be out looking for us. I didn’t know who this club president was that I’d heard about twice now, and I didn’t know why I was meant to be brought in alive. 

I didn't know much at all. 

All I knew was that I did _not_ want to die; I happened to rather like life. 

After waiting it out for a few more minutes, I leaned over and whispered, “Hospital Wing?” to Albus, hoping he wouldn’t argue. 

Luckily, he simply nodded, looking sort of surprised. One of us should definitely have thought of going there by now. 

Albus took my hand and, under the cloak, we quietly left the room and headed back down the hallway from which we’d first come. After turning a corner, I glanced back and saw that of the far end of the corridor that ours had veered off of, the two figures were still waiting around by the One-Eyed Woman statue. 

It was hard not to think about the fact that Albus seemed very sure that his family were the only people who knew about the passages. I couldn’t possibly entertain the idea that one of _them_ would be behind all this. Someone had to have leaked the information. 

But what if no one had leaked anything? I shook my head quickly. 

_Stop thinking like that,_ I told myself. _It can’t be one of them, it just can’t._

Eventually we made it downstairs, turning down one of the corridors and hurrying to the Hospital Wing. To my disappointment, the doors were open, which made me worry that someone was inside. 

However, once we were close enough to see inside, I realized that that was only _kind_ _of_ the case. Someone was inside- but they weren’t alive. 

We found the lifeless body of one of the younger Slytherins I’d seen at the club meeting earlier. She couldn’t have been older than twelve or thirteen, and looking at her made me feel queasy. She didn’t look like she’d been obliterated by an axe or anything, but there was a clear stab wound in her stomach, around which blood had dried and stained her robes. A decent amount of blood also soaked the floor around her. 

“We need to close the doors,” Albus murmured to me softly, looking at the dead girl sadly.

I nodded, following at his side to the doors. It took a _long_ time to close them to avoid making sounds. We had to go slowly and the doors were heavy. To my astonishment and relief, they didn’t creak or anything, but we had to move them particularly slowly near the end to avoid a loud crash. 

Finally, we were able to take the cloak off and evaluate the situation. 

I turned toward the body with a frown. “Did you know her?” I asked Albus. 

He shrugged and shook his head. “No. I’ve probably seen her in the common room though. She’s got to be, what, a Second Year maybe?”

I bit my lip and nodded. “Something like that. At least she’s in one piece- I don’t think Cook’s the one who got her.”

The girl had clearly been stabbed, judging by the blood stain around her abdomen. I wondered if it had been Meg who’d gotten her. The knife she’d pulled on me earlier still sat in my pocket. 

We opted not to move her- if someone came in, we could throw the cloak over our heads, but if we moved her then people would know we’d been here. As long as no one knew we were hurt, I hoped this place could be safe for us, at least for a short while. Cook hadn’t said anything to Luke about noticing that we were hurt when we’d run away from him, I figured because he hadn’t gotten a good look at us.

Albus and I scoured the Hospital Wing for supplies. I found some bandages, and there was a basin near Pomfrey’s office that connected to a faucet. I found a towel nearby and wetted it before joining Albus in the back office. 

He was searching Pomfrey’s desk for anything else useful. “Hey,” I said quietly. “Do me a favor and sit down for a second?”

He looked at me for a moment, his eyes flickering to the bandages and towel, before nodding and moving to sit on one of the beds back there. 

I gently held the towel to his head, dabbing at the dried blood. Albus winced, but said nothing, letting me clean him up. I finally got most of the blood off, though I got a little carried away and wound up cleaning the rest of his face. I wrapped the bandage around the gash- it wasn’t deep, but I didn’t want him to wind up infected or something. 

Could head injuries lead to gangrene, or was that more of a limb thing? I could never be a healer, I know fuck all about medicine. 

Albus watched me closely as I patched him up, a small smile on his face. 

I paused before I could add a second bandage. “What?”

He shrugged lightly. “The water felt good. I feel a lot more relaxed.”

“Good,” I smiled. “Because we ought to sleep. It’s got to be, what, one in the morning?”

Albus held his wrist up and glanced at his watch. “Half-past one, yeah.”

I sighed. “We should sleep in shifts. I don’t want anyone sneaking up on us.”

Albus nodded, sliding over on the bed for me to sit beside him. I did, and leaned over against his shoulder while I absentmindedly rubbed my wrist that stupid Meg had dropped an elbow on earlier. 

“I can take the first watch,” he murmured as he rested his cheek on my head. 

I shook my head. “No, you should take it,” I protested. “You got roughed up.”

“You _wrestled_ a girl,” Albus pointed out, and I could feel his smile. “You sleep first. I promise I’m alright.” I looked at him skeptically and he chuckled softly. “Honestly, Mika, I’m fine. You’re the one who looks exhausted.”

“That’s just because you got to clean the blood off your face and I didn’t,” I lifted my head and smiled back. “It’s making me look all battle-damaged.

He reached a hand up to rest on my cheek, the other resting on my hurt wrist. “You sort of _are_ battle-damaged.”

This was probably a weird time to want someone the way I did, but fuck I wanted him. He was so close to me, and his green eyes were strikingly bright despite the low light in Pomfrey’s office. His hand felt cool on my face. 

I moved my own hands to rest on the sides of his neck and lightly tugged him closer to me. He smirked a little, letting me move him so that his forehead rested against mine. 

“You’re an absolute badass, you know,” Albus whispered, his lips a breath away from mine. “Taking on a crazy murderer and bandaging up my stupid head.”

“Not a stupid head,” I breathed back. “You thought of the cloak, remember?”

“You thought of the Hospital Wing,” he replied. “You’re definitely carrying us here, Hawke.”

I smirked. “Well like we’ve said, you make for a nice damsel in distress.”

I could feel him shake with quiet laughter. “I believe the damsels in the stories usually reward their rescuers with a kiss, right?”

I caught my breath. “Who am I to question tradition?”

He quietly laughed again before wrapping an arm around my back and finally kissing me. My hands slid to the back of his neck as his lips captured mine. It wasn’t soft, or sweet, or gentle. It was needy from the first second. We were both physically and emotionally fatigued and _definitely_ pretty jaded all around after a night of dead bodies and hiding and running, and this was a moment of release for us both. 

His lips pressed against mine hard, one of his hands lowering to rest on my hip while the other moved to the back of my head. I reached up and ran my fingers through his hair and gripped the front of his shirt with my off hand, the fabric wrinkling beneath my skin. I thought it was incredibly unfair that his hair was still soft when mine had become frizzy as hell. 

We kissed hungrily, giving into a night of stress and panic and desperation in the only way we could think of. Albus moved his other hand to join the first at my hips and lifted me enough to pull me on top of him. I straddled him, a little clumsily until he shifted so that he lay back on the bed. My hands pressed against his chest as we snogged, while his rested on my thighs, just a few centimeters lower than the hem of my skirt. 

There was just so much want, so much _need_. So much need for something that was the total opposite of terror and death and decay. We hadn’t really, _honestly_ had the time to process everything we’d seen in any way that could be considered at all normal. There’d been no crying, no breakdowns, no long, drawn out screams; this was our way of preventing those things, of delaying any time to actually think about everything we’d seen and experienced. 

I’m not sure how long we stayed that way, but getting lost in Albus’s touch and kiss was the best possible distraction from the fact that people were searching the castle at that very moment, literally out for our blood. 

Every kiss sent thoughts of killing Meg and rituals and axes further and further out of my mind. Every caress was warm and I felt so alive. _Alive._

But truthfully, I was also exhausted. 

I was so tired that I can’t even remember when we actually stopped, but at some point Albus broke the kiss to get me to go to bed while he took the first watch. He looked as pained to break apart from me as I felt, but realistically we needed to rest. 

Once asleep, I dreamt a rather lovely dream, one of purple skies and blue trees and green eyes.

Well, it started off lovely. Then, like I was watching a horror movie, everything grew dark. Clouds flew in overhead, blocking out the sun. The trees started to shrivel, one by one, shrinking into themselves as they turned gray, like pieces of foil being crumpled up. Blood started to rain down from the clouds, coating the grass in a sea of dark red. I could feel the stickiness of it under my feet as I walked. Crazed laughter sounded in the background while I ran down this row of shriveling trees, until I was wading through blood. 

Honestly, after all the crazy shit I’d seen that evening, the dream probably could’ve been worse.

* * *

**A/N: Taking a break from cliffhangers : ) Lemme know what you thought about this one! I'm still having a blast writing this story. I had a little Halloween movie night yesterday so the theme is very much on my mind.**

_**Disclaimer: Anything you recognize is of course JK Rowling's.** _


	6. And Suddenly We're Babysitters

Albus woke me up somewhere around half past five in the morning to switch sleeping roles. Three and a half hours of sleep wasn’t ideal, but we had no way of knowing how much time we had before they found us in there. 

He passed out quickly, looking thoroughly spent. I didn't blame him, since he’d essentially been up all night. 

I had no idea what to do with myself while Albus slept. I didn’t want to stray too far in case someone came into the Hospital Wing. Since we were in the back office, we’d at least have time to jump under the cloak if we heard the doors, so I opted to remain close to him. 

I made my way over to Pomfrey’s desk and fell into the chair behind it. There were some random ingredients scattered about and inside the drawers, but as I wasn’t healer, I had no idea what to make of it all. 

What caught my interest most was the parchment, quill, and capped ink that I found in the bottom drawer. 

I glanced back at the sleeping Albus before looking at the parchment and shrugging. 

I rolled out a piece of parchment, smoothing it down over the desk, uncapped the ink and dipped the quill. 

_Dear Julia,_

_I’m going to die. And I don’t mean that in a dramatic-teenager-my-life-is-over type of way, I mean they are actually going to kill me. I’m currently wandless, sealed inside the castle, and hiding for my bloody life. Anyways, doing well otherwise. Albus Potter is here, and he is fit, so I suppose that’s a plus. _

_Okay, I best be off- murderers after me and all._

_Your loving sister,_

_Mika_

I stared at what I’d written for approximately thirty seconds before I quickly crumpled it up. It wasn’t like I was worried about Albus finding it- he probably assumed I found him fit since I’d _literally_ snogged him the night before- but I wanted the letters to remain my own private thing. 

Besides, he didn’t need an ego boost. We’d already established he was a _pretty_ damsel in distress, that would hold him over. 

I grabbed more paper and started again. 

_Dear Julia,_

_Sorry for sounding so panicked before. I’m still more or less adjusting to this escape-from-murderers nonsense, but I think I’m doing okay, all things considered. I kicked a bloke in the dick before he could axe a kid, and that was a hell of a confidence booster._

_I wonder what my friends are up to around this time. Well, I suppose they’re probably sleeping as it’s not even six in the morning. Flik’s probably wondering why I haven’t written her yet, since I usually get bored and owl her quickly. Maybe she’ll think something’s up and find out I’m in danger. It’s a stretch, I realize, but I need to hope for something here._

_I keep thinking about that one night- you know the one. I’ve had a couple moments tonight where, I’ll admit, I’ve thought “this is the worst thing that could happen, right?” I’ve seen so much death and blood in the last ten hours or so. But I feel selfish when I think that, because then I remember that night. _

_Should I talk about it more? I dunno, bloody hell I need therapy. I think Flik started seeing someone after everything that happened. She keeps telling me I ought to as well._

_Too bad I’m likely going to die sometime soon._

_So maybe see you in a bit, yeah?_

_Love always,_

_Mika_

The clock off to my right read about nine when I finally decided I needed to wake Albus. I was more than a little nervous that no one had come to check the Hospital Wing for so many hours- I wondered what the arses out there were up to. Something weird and cult-ish, I supposed, like… eating baby goats, or chanting. Or having a pillow fight, I don’t know. 

I’ve never claimed to be an expert on _cults_. 

With everything that had been on my mind over the time I spent letting Albus sleep, it’d been difficult to focus on anything other than _oh-gods-they’re-going-to-kill-me-oh-shit-I’m-screwed_. But as morning arrived, and the beams of sunlight began to spill through the windows, my internal clock went off, like the alarm you don’t want to hear on a Monday morning. 

I had no idea how long we’d be able to avoid Luke and Cook and whoever the hell else was looking for us, but I had to try and imagine- as I’m quite the optimist, mostly- that we’d _survive_ this whole ordeal. And it was hard to imagine any possible way to actually take out the others, so I had to expect that we’d survive by simply _enduring._

And if we were going to endure, I understood as my stomach suddenly groaned, we needed food. 

I made my way to the side of the bed and lifted a hand to gently prod his shoulder. He must have been having a nightmare, because he awoke with a sharp gasp, sitting up so fast he nearly slammed his head into my face.

“Uh- morning,” I smiled weakly. 

“Hey,” he said after a beat. Beads of sweat clung to his forehead as he stared at me. “Sorry, I was having some _wild_ dreams.”

“I bet,” I nodded. “Are you hungry? I sort of just realized that at some point we’re going to have to eat if we want to keep up this whole survival thing.”

His eyebrows shot up, like the idea of food hadn’t really occurred to him. To be fair, he’d been awake for precisely twenty seconds. 

“Shit,” he muttered. “Yeah, we do need food. What do you think the crazies are up to around now?”

I shrugged. “Ring-Around-the-Rosie?”

Albus snorted. “I’m sure, Hawke. Alright, so, what’s the plan? Sneak down to the kitchens, nick some food, come back here?”

“I think that’s our best bet,” I agreed. 

“Well then,” Albus down from the bed. “Let’s hope it works out. I’m not too keen on survival cannibalism.”

“Which is of course the next logical movie,” I grinned. “But surely you’d be chivalrous and take the fall for me, wouldn’t you?”

“Do I look like a Gryffindor to you?” he raised an eyebrow as he pulled out the Cloak. “Chivalry can eat shit.”

I huffed. “Great. You want to _eat me._ ”

Maybe it was the way I phrased it that made his eyebrows lift so quickly, or maybe it was because his mind already happened to reside deep in the gutter- I know mine did. The rent was fair. In any case, I blushed fiercely. 

“Let’s go,” I mumbled, deliberately ignoring his smirk as he pulled me close to fit us under the Invisibility Cloak. The proximity wasn’t any help toward alleviating the heat in my cheeks, but I figured I ought to just enjoy myself.

I think it’s particularly important to enjoy the little things when your chances of survival are looking grim at best. 

To my relief, we ran into none of the cult freaks on our way down to the kitchens. But still, I couldn’t help but worry over the fact that we hadn’t had anymore run-ins. What’s that saying, about the calm before the storm?

Well I guess the saying is just that there _is_ a calm before the storm. And this certainly felt calm, and my nightmares the prior evening felt like some horrible foreshadowing of one hell of a storm, raining thick blood and flooding the halls with death and horror and decay. I wasn’t sure what exactly to expect, but I’d already witnessed death, _caused_ it myself, and evaded it on a couple occasions. There was no telling what might come next.

_Sundays, am I right? You spend them doing homework, dreading the work week, or, in some cases, hiding from a bunch of blood-lusting cunts ranging from apathetic sociopaths to coked out brutes._

Albus and I made it to the portrait of the fruit, and I allowed myself a brief recollection of the time I’d found Albus down in the kitchens the day he’d broken up with his ex-girlfriend. Because she’d cheated on him. With his _cousin._

We’re all works in progress I suppose, but that was just _bitchy_.

I let out another sigh of relief when the door swung open to reveal an empty kitchen. Come after me in the dark of night, fine, but leave me be at breakfast time. 

_Shit, I wish I could brush my teeth about now._

“Okay,” Albus said softly, pulling the cloak away. “Let’s find some food and get out of here fast. I don’t like the idea of us lingering down here.”

“Me neither,” I nodded. We raided the place for what we could carry- I was particularly grateful for a box of cereal that had been left in a cupboard. What happened to the good old days of awkwardly eating my afternoon snack a few tables down an Albus I barely knew?

Granted, he was a hell of a snog, but I wasn’t sure I considered it worth _avoiding ritual sacrifice_ or anything. If we were to shag maybe I’d reevaluate. 

I found a bowl on one of the countertops and began piling our things inside- last thing we needed was someone finding us because food started spilling out of our arms. 

I was just dropping a couple bananas- potassium is important for the muscles after all- when a creak from the door startled me. Albus was across the kitchen rummaging through some drawers when he heard it too. 

We both looked at each other sharply- I was too far to get to him in time to make it under the cloak. 

The door crept open slowly, hesitantly, like nothing I’d seen from any of the murderers so far. They didn’t really seem to care much for subtlety. A moment later, I realized because it wasn’t one of them. It was another survivor. 

He had to be a First Year. The boy who peaked his head inside was tiny, pale, and visibly trembling, even from where I was standing. He was small for his age, and scrawny, I realized, as he stepped inside and let the door gently close behind him. He didn’t do much of a recon job, having not seen Albus or me. I wondered how he was still alive. 

It took him a couple steps to notice us, but when he did, he turned _whiter_ somehow- from _vivid_ white to _ultra pure_ white, like you’d see on a white paint swatch. 

He looked ready to bolt. “It’s okay,” I said quickly, holding my hands up as he quickly turned for the door. “We’re not one of those freaks.”

He paused with a hand on the door, regarding me skeptically before Albus started toward me slowly. The boy’s eyes darted over at the sudden movement, and upon taking in Albus, they grew into saucers. 

“Y-you’re Albus Potter,” he stammered. “The Chaser. And Harry Potter’s son.”

Albus smiled at him gently, taking a few more steps toward the kid. “That’s me. Look, she’s telling the truth. We won’t hurt you.”

“My friend,” he whimpered. “We ran into that big guy and-” he shuddered before finishing, “-he had an axe.”

I bit my lip, exchanging a brief look with Albus. We turned back to the kid. “What’s your name?” I asked softly, hoping I appeared friendly despite blood-stained clothes and likely atrocious bags under my eyes. 

“Noah,” he said. A yellow tie hung from his neck, and I realized he was a First Year Hufflepuff who’d been at the club meeting the night before. “Noah Poole.” 

“Hi Noah,” I said. “I’m Mika Hawke. And obviously you already know who Albus is.”

“Nice to meet you,” Albus nodded. “So- what happened with Cook? If you don’t mind me asking, that is.”

Noah’s lip quivered slightly, and I lifted an eyebrow at Albus. _If he doesn’t mind? He’s eleven and watched his friend get hacked up by a maniac!_

“You don’t have to talk about it,” I added quickly, seeing the panic in Noah’s expression. “You’re safe with us, alright? We’re going to make it out of this.”

He regarded me skeptically, his eyes drifting back to Albus and refilling with hope. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.

“How?” Noah whispered. “That guy was huge, I only got away because I hid- if he _finds_ us, he’s going to k-”

“Don’t worry about that,” I shook my head. It was obvious though that he didn’t want any reassurance from _me._ He wanted it from Albus, Chaser extraordinaire and son of the famous world-saving bloke. Go figure. “One second,” I sighed, and strode forward, grabbing Albus around the arm and dragging him a few steps away. 

“Say something to him,” I whispered sharply to Albus, tugging on his arm a little. 

He frowned. “The hell am I supposed to say?”

“I don’t know, but he’s staring at you with sparkles in his fucking eyes,” I whisper-cried. “So say _something._ ”

Albus sighed heavily before turning back toward Noah. “Er, look Noah, when life gets you down, throws lemons- and murderers, I guess- your way, what do you do?” The kid just blinked at Albus, who swallowed and continued with a weak attempt at enthusiasm, “You get back on that horse! You say fuck the lemons, you, you-” he broke off, turning to me desperately. “Help.”

I groaned. “Alright, look, what I think Albus is _trying_ to say- emphasis on trying-” Albus grimaced at that. “-is that you just have to stay positive and try to look at this from a less emotional stance. We have to be smarter than the nutters out there, right?”

Noah nodded timidly. “I don’t think I’m that smart, though. You two will help me?”

“Of course,” I nodded, though part of me thought things were difficult enough without having to _babysit._ But I could hardly throw the kid to the wolves, could I?

_Could I?_

_No, no, stop that Mika._

“We need a plan,” I said, looking from the scared face of Noah to the thoroughly uncomfortable one of Albus. Didn’t he have a little sibling? And multiple younger cousins? How was he such rubbish at talking to a child? “We have some food now, so hopefully we can get our strength up. But how do we get out of here?”

“We need to lure someone away from one of the guarded passages,” Albus suggested. “So that we can make a run for it.”

I nodded, squinting in thought. “That sounds like our best bet. I wish I still had- OH!” Albus and Noah both jumped at my outburst. “I just remembered! I left my bag in that charms room. If it’s still there, it should have a few Zonko’s products. Maybe one of those could help us.”

“The charms class?” Noah asked with wide eyes. “On the third floor? How are we going to make it up there without getting stopped by one of those- those-”

“I believe the word you’re looking for is ‘wankers,’” Albus supplied. 

I glared at him. “Let’s not corrupt the youth, Al.”

Albus snorted. “I said so much worse when I was eleven.”

Noah beamed at him. “That’s so _cool._ Mum never lets me swear at home. She says it’s ‘unbecoming.’” He gawked at Albus like the latter was the superstar trading card the former had been hoping to unwrap with a chocolate frog. 

“It _is_ unbecoming,” I informed Noah. “And we have a secret weapon that will get us upstairs.”

Albus grinned at the kid. “Ever seen an Invisibility Cloak?”

“ _An Invisibility Cloak?_ ” 

I repressed a sigh. This kid was going to go from cute to annoying very quickly, wasn’t he? 

I had no idea how we were all going to fit under the cloak. I contemplated whether it’d be rude to shove Noah inside a cupboard to hide while Albus and I went off to find my backpack- he was small, he’d be fine. 

Maybe the universe had sent him along as a way of warning us from more snog-fests, as if it were saying, “Here, have this precious, baby-faced, starstruck little peanut to look after to avoid distracting each other with- well, each other.”

Personally, I thought we were managing fine, all things considered. If the universe really wanted to send us a message, I could have done with something a little less troublesome than another human being. 

Like a broken ankle. 

Or a meteorite. 

Albus was in the midst of showing the cloak to Noah when I tuned back into their conversation. 

“-amazing!” gushed the kid’s now-floating head. “I can’t believe you _have_ one of these!”

Albus smirked. “It’s a family heirloom. And if we make it out of here, and you breathe a word of its existence to anyone, I’ll-” I cleared my throat loudly before Albus could threaten the First Year. “-I’ll be very disappointed,” he finished, grinning sheepishly in my direction. I bit back a smile of my own. 

_Albus Potter’s smile might do me in before the killers even find us._

“It’ll be a tight fit,” I warned the two of them. “So we need to be careful to stay quiet and move carefully. I have no idea where they are right now or why they haven’t found us yet, but I can’t imagine they’d just stop trying to find us.”

“They might be up at the Astronomy Tower,” Noah suggested. “Didn’t they say the ‘club president’ would be there?”

_Huh. Alright maybe the kid isn’t as much of an utter liability as I’d immediately presumed._

“They could be,” Albus agreed, turning back to me. “Setting up for whatever weird ritual they had in mind. Do you think they even _need_ us?”

I shrugged helplessly. I wasn’t sure what Luke or Cook or any of the others thought they’d be getting out of this whole sacrifice-venture, but from what we’d heard I was specifically wanted alive. I could think of approximately zero fathomable scenarios in which that could be a _good_ thing. 

“So here’s the plan,” I announced. “We get under the cloak, we sneak up to the Charms classroom, we grab my backpack, and we bring it back down to the Hospital Wing. Hopefully that place is still safe, and if not, we’ll come back here.”

“Sounds good,” Albus nodded. “Noah? Can you do this?”

Noah took a shaky breath. “I can do this.” 

Evidently, it didn’t matter whether he actually _could,_ in fact, do it. Just as we prepared to all duck under the cloak, the kitchen door swung open with the ferocity I’d expected from a proper killer. 

“Oi!” 

I shoved Noah away just before the long arrow could pierce him. 

_Is that a sodding speargun? Seriously, where the fuck did he even get that?_

Justin Glover, one of Louis Weasley and Luke’s other roommates, clicked a button on his gun, reeling his roped spear back into place, ready to be relaunched. He shot me a rueful grin. “Hey, Miks.”

I glared at my ex-boyfriend loathingly. “Glover.”

Justin Glover and I had briefly dated in my Fourth Year, the year before I’d started dating Trevor’s idiot roommate. He and I had parted peacefully, really, since we were young and both figured we had plenty of living to do that didn’t really justify staying together. 

Although now he had a speargun pointed at me, so maybe it wasn’t as cordial a split as I remembered. 

“Looking well, Miks,” Glover said quietly, still pointing the weapon at me. 

“Same to you,” I smiled pleasantly. “The mountain-troll-sat-on-your-face look is really working wonders, honestly.”

Albus snorted from somewhere off to my right, but I didn’t turn away from Glover, who simply rolled his eyes. 

“Alright, Hawke,” he sighed. “Let’s get this over with. You’re wanted alive, but he-” he pointed the speargun at Albus. “-isn’t. So once he and this kid are dead, you’re coming with me.”

“And who exactly is so taken with me that they request my lively presence?” I asked, tilting my head. I needed to stall him, until I could figure out how to get us out of this. 

“Afraid I can’t tell you that, love,” Glover winked. He turned his attention back to Albus, failing to notice my hand slip into my pocket. “Now if you’ll excuse me-”

_Thump._

Glover recoiled slightly- only slightly. Having never thrown a knife before, my technique wasn’t exactly _refined._ I suppose I shouldn’t have been as surprised as I felt when the knife hit him in the head hilt-first. 

But I was, and so I gaped in a state of thorough disbelief.

_You’ve got to be shitting me._

Luckily, Albus was thinking quickly. In the moment of confusion, he reached for the first thing he could find on top of the nearest table- a glass bowl, it turned out to be- and hurled it at Glover with Chaser-precision. 

The bowl absolutely _bashed_ Justin Glover in the head, sending him backwards and tumbling to the floor. The bowl shattered as it hit the ground, sending glass shards flying and eliciting a loud enough sound that I let out an instinctive scream. 

_Shit. Someone could definitely have heard that._

Glover lay on the ground, still alive but groaning in a weird, half-conscious sort of state. “Holy shit, Albus,” Noah breathed. I didn’t bother correcting his language- it’d just make me a hypocrite. “That was so _cool._ ”

I rolled my eyes. “You can swoon later, Noah. We need to move, now.”

Albus was already on the move, kneeling by the mostly incapacitzted Glover. He picked up the fallen speargun. “You’re right. We need to get out of here before more come. Here, hold this.” He handed the weapon to Noah- I know, I know, awful idea- to clear up his hands before searching Glover’s pockets. 

A small pool of blood was starting to leak from the gash in Glover’s head, reminding me a lot of the state Albus had been in when Meg Donahue had clocked him with a trophy. Albus procured a lighter, which he tossed to me, and kept the knife I’d thrown. I couldn’t really fault him there. I’d butchered my throw. 

“This thing is _wicked_ ,” Noah gushed, turning the speargun over in his hands. “I wonder how it-” 

I imagine he intended to finish his statement with “ _works,”_ however his question was answered before he could finish asking it. Whatever trigger he mistakenly hit launched the spear so fast that neither Albus nor I had any time to react. It shot forward in a blurry streak, missing Albus by about a foot and burying itself into the throat of the half-conscious Justin Glover. 

Glover gurgled for a few moments, his eyes opening as he came to enough to realize that he was _dying._ Blood spurted from his neck, like a broken faucet, spraying Albus in the side of the head. 

_For fuck’s sake, I had just gotten Al cleaned up, too._

Once the choking noises passed, and Glover’s eyes rolled back, Albus and I turned sharply on Noah. 

“Er- oops,” the kid let out a nervous laugh. “I’ll just, um- yeah.” He dropped the speargun, which landed with a harsh thump as some piece broke off. If _only_ looks could kill, because I would have rid myself of this child a thousand times. 

Albus sighed, pressing a hand to his temple. “Alright, Noah, remind me not to hand you any more weapons before you accidentally break anything else- or _kill_ anyone else.”

“That’s fair,” Noah said, shooting us a sheepish smile that made me want to punch him. “What do we do with him now?”

“We leave him,” Albus said decisively. “If anyone stumbles upon him they’ll realize we aren’t going down without a fight.”

“So it’s good that I killed him?” Noah looked confused. It was genuinely concerning how unphased this eleven-year-old was by what had just occurred. 

Then again, he’d already witnessed his friend get _axed_ to death by Simon Cook. 

“You know, the threshold for ‘good’ changes significantly when you’re fighting off murderers,” I sighed. “Let’s just get going.” 

I slipped the lighter Albus had tossed me into my pocket, though I wasn’t sure how much use it’d be. Someone would have to get _very_ close to me for it to actually become useful against a human being. I’d feel better once we got to my backpack- at least those Zonkos goods would probably have some value to offer. 

It took every ounce of self-control not to hurl at the sight of Glover slumped on the floor covered in blood, but I managed. Perhaps I’d gotten all the vomiting out of my system after I’d killed Meg.

I was startled to find myself taking a shaky breath. I’d been overall managing my internal panic by repressing the hell out of it and distracting myself with plans and Albus and letters. But here, staring at yet another dead guy, the urge to _cry_ suddenly surfaced like an unwanted zit, and my eyes began to well up. 

Albus, at some point, took notice. “Mika.”

His voice was soft, like the rest of him was soft when he came to me and pulled me against him in a tight hug. I buried my face into his neck. I wasn’t _crying_ exactly, but I was shaking and my breathing was unsteady and my eyes were leaking and-

 _Oh._ Alright, so I guess I was crying. 

Given the state of my life at that moment, I’d say a breakdown was deserved. The timing might not have been great, since we really needed to get going, but it was _fucking fair._ We’d been running, hiding, fighting, bleeding, and struggling for hours and I just wanted a break. I wanted to climb back into bed, and maybe drag Albus with me, and push Noah into the lake outside and leave him for the squid. 

“We can do this Mika,” Albus whispered. “I have no idea how, and we might have to deal with just a few more dead bodies today, but we’ll get out of this.”

He sounded as unsure as I felt, but I let myself believe him nonetheless. 

“We _will,_ okay?” He said again when I pulled away. He rested his palm against my cheek. “You and me, we’re going to survive.”

Noah cleared his throat, standing just off to the side. “Er- me too, right?” 

_Fuck off, Noah,_ I thought with an inward scowl. 

There were a lot of things that would have annoyed me less than the arrival of Noah Poole in our lives, ranging from a cat charmed to float above my head and _meow_ all day to a global pandemic. 

Still, I had to shake those thoughts aside if we were going to survive. 

Albus pulled the Cloak back out for us to pile under, and once again, we started off for the third floor. 

* * *

**A/N: Hurray! Another bad guy bites the dust! Unfortunately, they have a pesky child to deal with now, and that really won't help the survival process, will it?**

**Let me know what you thought! I'm having so much fun with this story :)**


	7. Inconvenient Breakdowns

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Oh god it's been so long I know I'm sorry.   
> Also, we getting angsty here this time gang, buckle up XD

Noah Poole had grown rather comfortable with us since accidentally killing a bloke. I suppose we’d all been properly bonded through our experience, but he in particular really came out of his shell in the three minutes it’d been since we left the kitchens. 

It was awful. 

“Do you think we could go flying when this is all over?” he whispered as we ascended some stairs. “My mates and I saw you in your game against Ravenclaw, you scored almost all the team’s points yourself!”

I rolled my eyes. I get that Albus was supposedly a great Chaser, but I was a star Seeker myself. 

That, and, his constant whispering wasn’t really doing much for our _stealth._

“How about you shut it for a whole five minutes and maybe I’ll think about it,” Albus hissed back. I found it a bit concerning how his own shortness with an eleven-year-old just made me want him more. 

Noah seemed to take the hint; he stayed quiet as we finished climbing the staircase and headed down another corridor. There were still two more halls and another staircase to get through. I was growing increasingly more nervous about everything, but at least the Zonkos products could serve as some quality distraction methods if nothing else. 

Given that I’d killed Meg, and that Noah had accidentally skewered Glover, our chances were actually becoming gradually better number-wise. I wouldn’t have thought our little team would have had it in us. But I also knew that it was only a matter of time before we ran into Cook or Luke again, and I wasn’t sure we were ready for _that_ particular fight. 

Cook still seemingly didn’t know we’d killed his girlfriend. He was going to _lose his sodding mind_ — not that he was particularly sane as it was. 

In the quiet moments of our walk, I once again found myself questioning whether this was the worst thing I’d been through. Surely it wasn’t _too_ selfish of me to believe so, was it? Julia was always the selfless one, though. I was never great at making those sorts of judgments. 

I wished I could sit and write. I would have loved nothing more than a peaceful moment alone with a quill and some paper. It’d become so therapeutic, an outlet for the buildup of chaotic thoughts that had plagued my mind since even before this murder-fest. 

I hadn’t realized how shaky my breaths had become until Albus laced his hand in my own and gave it a squeeze. I glanced over, his face barely visible under the cloak in such dim lighting, and shot him a grateful smile.

I supposed that, if I couldn’t write to steady my fears and panic, then having Albus Potter in close contact would just have to suffice. I wondered what would happen to us if we were to make it out of this alive— I actually dared to hope for something to continue. Nothing brings two people together like shared trauma. And annoying children. 

“Are we there yet?”

_He did not just pull that question. I’m going to hand him to Simon Cook in a fucking gift bag._

“Shut up,” I whispered sharply. Honestly, we were on the second floor still. First Year or not, he had to know that we still had another set of stairs to climb. 

Albus and I seemed to be operating on a shared wavelength, because we almost simultaneously started to pick up the pace. If Noah was incapable of shutting up, we were going to need to hurry out of here or we’d all wind up with our heads on stakes by morning. _Stakes? Is that even right, do they do that? Call me uncultured, but I really don’t know my barbarians from my blood cults._

It wasn’t until we passed an open door along the side of one of the hallways that we skidded to an abrupt halt. Apparently we’d all caught the same sight. 

Or maybe it was the stench. 

Keeping under the cloak, Albus and I exchanged grimaces as we stepped into the open Muggle Studies professor’s office. 

Professor Bowers, a kind-hearted man who’d been responsible for my friendship with Lucy, Scorpius, Trevor and Flik, lay dead on the floor. 

He had to have been there for hours, maybe since before the club meeting the prior night even. From the looks of the dried blood across his clothes and the puddle beneath his head and back, they’d cut him _deeply._ A large gash was visible across his throat, and once again, I felt sick to my stomach. 

I wondered how many other professors could be dead. Most went home for the break, and apparently McGonagall had been sent away, but I was certain that at least a few had to still be in the castle. At the club meeting they’d told us they’d slipped them some sleeping potions. 

Given that they’d killed a bunch of us after sending us off on a scavenger hunt we were never meant to finish, I probably shouldn’t have been so surprised at having been lied to. 

Something about seeing the dead professor, however, sent a shiver of dread down my spine that I hadn’t quite gotten from the other bodies. Professor Bowers was a _grown up._ A mature, fully realized wizard had been taken down by a bunch of students armed with _Muggle weapons._ I wasn’t sure how they were managing all of this, or _why they weren’t using magic themselves_ , but the fact that they were able to butcher a professor like this was genuinely terrifying. 

“We should probably keep moving,” Albus murmured softly. I nodded, tearing my eyes away from the decaying body and letting Albus take my hand and lace our fingers together. He gave Noah a nudge, who’d been eyeing the professor with wide, frightened eyes. At least _something_ seemed to actually phase the kid for once. 

It wasn’t pleasant, leaving Professor Bowers like that, but there wasn’t any good reason to move him if it were just going to tip someone off that we’d been by. We continued instead up the corridor, the next staircase coming into view. I let my gaze drift to the side of the hall as we passed a glass encasing of trophies and photographs. 

I didn’t slow down consciously, I don’t think. But something made me feet drag, which in turn held Albus and Noah back to match my dragging pace. My eyes scanned the glass, and while I might have inwardly known what it was that I sought, it still took me by surprise when I stopped on an old photograph of the Hogwarts Potions Club Champions of 2020. My delay became a full halt, and while part of me was vaguely aware of Albus watching me curiously, the rest of me was glued to that picture. 

The team was celebrating a victory, after some sort of potions competition in Vienna, where they were to demonstrate their potions making ability compared to some of the other wizarding schools. 

At the front, wearing the widest grin and shrugging in a silly, oh-shucks-stop-it-though-I-know-I-deserve-this sort of way, was a girl. Her hair was tied up in a messy bun and her glasses were slipping down her nose, but she looked ecstatic. And as she shrugged and beamed with a false modesty that made me smile myself, a boy beside her laughed and threw an arm over her shoulders, pressing his forehead against her hair. 

The others cheered and laughed and danced around happily, but I couldn’t look away from that nonchalant shrug and the conspiratorial grin. She was always like that, Julia. She was brilliant, and she knew it, but she wasn’t arrogant about it. She wasn’t modest, either, but there was no reason for her to be. She was _brilliant._

“Mika?” 

His voice brought me back to earth, and I gasped a little as Albus squeezed my hand. He looked curious, and perplexed, but also worried. 

“I—” I tried to whisper back, but suddenly I had no idea what to say. Thank Merlin Noah was staying quiet for once. With the amount of emotions swirling around, I would probably hit him for even hiccuping at this point. 

“Come on,” Albus uttered quietly, tugging on my hand gently and nodding toward the nearest classroom. We followed his lead, slipping through the ajar door before slowly closing it. I threw the cloak off, leaving a half-visible Albus and a completely out-of-sight Noah and strode away from the two quickly, huddling against the wall across the room. 

Space, I’d decided, was good. As warm and lovely as Albus Potter was, the idea of huddling close to others at that moment made me want to jump out a window just for the leg room. 

“Mika?” Albus tried again as he pulled the cloak the rest of the way off and gathered it in his arm. He moved toward me slowly, hesitantly, but to my relief he stopped a little ways away. Far enough for me to breath, but close enough for me to make out the lovely green shade of his eyes. Noah stepped forward a little ways, but he hopped up onto a desk behind Albus and watched us from there.

“I’m alright,” I managed at last, sighing. “Sorry about that. My second little breakdown and we’re still a floor away from the Charms classroom.”

“Forget it,” he shook his head quickly. “Breakdowns are normal. Healthy, even.”

“You haven’t had any,” I pointed out a little accusatory. 

“You slept through mine,” he corrected, smiling wryly. “I could hardly freak out in front of you— wouldn’t be very macho.”

I snorted. “God forbid you appear less macho.”

He smiled cheekily. “Exactly. I’ve cultivated such a manly image for you to drool over, I’d hate to ruin that.”

I grinned back, wishing upon every bloody star in the sky for Noah to just disappear instantly so I could properly jump the messy haired idiot in front of me. “I thought you’d been established as a _damsel,_ Potter.”

Albus stepped closer with a smirk. “Is this a weird time to ask you to the next Hogsmeade trip?”

“Yes,” Noah muttered from behind him. 

We ignored him. “If we survive this break, it’s a yes,” I told him, feeling giddy and significantly more motivated to survive this endeavor of ours.

He chuckled. “It’s a date then.” He took a few more steps toward me, but stopped again, his face turning more serious. “Mika… who was in that picture?”

I bit my lip and looked down. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Albus— he’d more than proven he cared, and was nice, and was obviously good in a pinch— but I hadn’t talked to anyone about Julia in months. I hadn’t even told most of my friends about her on my own. Flik had shared everything with them while I cowered in my room all summer. 

“Julia,” I started at last. “She’s my sister. Julia.”

He let out a long breath, his expression unreadable. “I didn’t know you had a sister,” he said quietly. 

I shrugged half-heartedly. “She’s four years older. Most people didn’t know unless we were close.”

“What happened to her?” Albus asked, taking another small step toward me, like it was instinctive, reflexive. 

I refused to look away from my own feet. 

_I’d only been home for a couple weeks. I always spent my breaks around my family— my friends got me for seventy-five percent of the school year, so it seemed only fair to grant my family my company (not to sound pompous)._

_Julia and I had always been close. Since I was a baby, she’d been there for me as my protector, my teacher, my best friend. During the school year, after she’d graduated from Hogwarts, we’d kept in touch through letters. We talked often, maybe weekly. Julia would tell me about her job hunts and Gus and I would tell her about classes and my friends. She’d been the first person I’d gone to after my first ever date, after my first failed test (she’d scolded me quite heavily for that), and even after I’d first shagged a guy._

_Julia had just gotten a new flat with Gus. They’d been seeing each other for years, so it was about time, really. They’d been Potions partners, bonding over their love for the subject and shared intellect. I was quite fond of Gus- he was kind, and funny, and quiet, which balanced Julia’s tendencies to be a little outlandish at times._

_She was inventive, Julia. She’d started creating new Potions when she was still sixteen, and Gus helped her develop so many new ideas. They were working on developing some sort of healing Potion for a blood disease that had surfaced in recent years in several wizards._

_They were trying to save lives._

_I wasn’t allowed in their lab. They had it stocked to the brim with ingredients, some I’d never even seen in person before. It was always locked, and no one was allowed inside the room aside from the two of them._

_And so, naturally, I’d made it my mission to go inside._

_It’s not like I wanted to do so to be a bad sister, or to intentionally disobey Julia. She was my sister— I love her dearly, and we’d never really fought before beyond typical petty spats that all siblings experience to some degree. But the secrecy of the room and the Potions experiments was something that drove me wild._

_There’s that whole saying about curiosity and cats, and satisfaction bringing them back. But what if the cat was already on its ninth life?_

_Nothing can bring that cat back._

_It took me another week before I figured out how to get inside. She may have been the Potions master, but I could be quite handy with charms when I wanted to be. Eventually, I got inside, and I had just started to engross myself into snooping up a storm when I heard Julia and Gus coming toward the front door._

_So, like the brave Gryffindor I am, I ran to hide behind a cabinet, crouching into a ball and praying to Merlin that they wouldn’t need anything in the back corner of the room._

_They never knew I was there. They worked as they normally would, passing ingredients to one another, exchanging fun banter, and flirting lightly (I really hoped that wouldn't progress as I hid a few meters away). They didn’t specify what it was that they were working on— they would simply ask each other whether they thought some ingredients would work and whether there were any possible complications they could think of with the combinations they were making._

_I suspect they’d hit some sort of breakthrough at one point, because Julia grew nervous about her next step._

_“This will either get us past the Valerian root problem we’ve been having,” she’d said gravely, “or blow us up. So, you know, fingers crossed!”_

_We shared a sense of humor, as you might have guessed._

_She dropped something into the cauldron before them, and it started to bubble. I grew nervous, watching the two of them take a few cautious steps back away from the trembling potion. I gripped the back of the counter tightly, preparing for the worst but not daring to tear my eyes away from the scene._

_And nothing happened. No one exploded, and the potion settled._

_I let out a long sigh of relief, and I could make out similar feelings on both Gus and Julia’s faces. She turned to him with a happy grin. “We did it!”_

_He beamed back. “You did it, Jules, I’m just your pretty assistant.”_

_She laughed and ran to him, and I couldn’t help but smile myself as he picked her up and twirled her around a few times. He set her down and pulled her into a deep kiss, one I’d hardly wanted to witness. I backed up, trying to get them out of my line of sight so I could properly cover my hearts and pretend to be literally anything else._

_As I scooted myself back along the floor, however, my foot slipped on the hard floor and kicked the bottom of the counter._

_I froze._ Busted, _I thought as Julia and Gus jumped in surprise at the noise. Their eyes found me quickly— Julia gasped and stepped toward me, opening her mouth to admonish me. Her movement was abrupt, startled. The suddenness led to her bumping the large table they’d been working over, and the bump made the entire surface shake. It wasn’t enough for anything to fall off the table and break, or for the cauldron to spill._

_It was, however, enough of a bump for the table to hit the shelves beside it. One of the jars near the top tipped over, rolling down the shelf a little ways until a book stopped its bath, and spilling what looked like some sort of herb along the way._

_Julia was glaring at me, yelling my name, but Gus was in a panic behind her. He raised his wand toward the falling plants, but he was too slow. They hit the potion without a very small, nearly inaudible splash._

_I don’t remember the sound of the explosion, not really. I sometimes think I remember exactly what it looked like to see my sister’s skin burned away in half a second, but then I wonder if that was just something from a nightmare. I don’t remember covering my face with my arms, or my back hitting the wall behind me, or being apparated to St. Mungo’s. I don’t remember thrashing about half-consciously while they healed me. I don’t remember when I first noticed scars from the burns along my collarbone— the healers hadn’t been able to get rid of them, oddly enough._

_I don’t even remember being told that Julia and Gus were dead. I have a vague recollection of what followed— stumbling to the bathroom, shutting myself inside, sinking against the door. Screaming. Crying. Pulling at my hair and clawing at my hands in a desperate attempt to wake myself up from the worst possible dream._

_The worst part, honestly, is that I also remember stumbling out of the bathroom an hour later to find Flik, seated on my hospital bed, looking as destroyed as I felt._

_Because just as I’d lost my sister, she’d lost her oldest brother, Gus._

_Her mum had glared at me for the duration of the funerals. Her father avoided glancing my way all morning. Her other brother, Sven, offered me a small, pained smile. We’d played Quidditch together for five years, and now a large part of me was grateful he’d graduated because I wasn’t sure how I’d ever be able to look him in the eye again._

_I didn’t know a lot of people at either funeral, but they were both crowded. Julia and Gus were loved by a lot of people. So many people saddened,_ broken, _because I had a stupid moment of childish curiosity. There was no excuse— accident or not, it_ was _my fault. I felt numb for the duration of each funeral._

_At Julia’s, I couldn’t decide if it was harder to speak or to move my gaze somewhere other than a tree outside the window. It was one of those massive ones, with roots stretching out far and huge branches that every child would want to climb._

_I didn’t want to climb it. Well, I did, but mostly just so I could jump out of it._

_But standing up and moving would take energy, and ascending it would take even more so. I just stared at it, eulogy after eulogy, while people I barely knew said a bunch of lovely things about my sister. My dad spoke on behalf of our family— neither my mum nor I could manage words that day._

_And then a small miracle occurred._

_Flik sat down beside me. It was the first time I’d seen her since St. Mungo’s. She simply walked up, sat beside me, and took my hand. We sat there for hours, or at least it felt like hours._

_Her brother’s funeral was the next day, and I held her hand there too. Her mum continued to glare daggers, but Sven gave me a hug before sitting beside his sister. For a moment, I envied that they still had each other, but I shook that away quickly— they’d still lost a sibling. Their situation was as horrible as my own._

_Maybe even more so, since their loss stemmed from my accidental betrayal._

_I was a bit of a recluse that summer. Flik tried to get me outside to get my mind off things for the first few weeks— she was stronger than I was. I didn’t want to move. I stared at more trees, and ate a lot of cereal, and flew around the backyard in the mornings; grieving or not, I needed to be in shape for the sake of Gryffindor._  
  
_Scorpius, Lucy, and Trevor found out about everything through Flik, and they all worked to get me out of the house that summer. I suppose Flik took them up on their offers of outings and company, because she got to know Louis through them._

_I simply sat in my room. Granted, things did get easier. My dad brought me Sudoku books regularly, trying to get me to actually use my brain again. So I tried a couple easy ones. They were quick to solve, and surprisingly addictive._

_I went through one book. And then two more. Then my mum bought me some word searches, and so I worked on those next. Soon I worked my way up to reading real books. I read about old wizards, and charms, and pirates, and adventures. I sometimes wished I could have an adventure of my own— not evading murderous cult fuckers, granted, but I wanted to do something._

_Sometime in the midst of my sulking, I’d started my letters. I wrote daily at first, for maybe a month, but then I cut back to a weekly letter by the time we were returning to Hogwarts._

_Flik and the others welcomed me back into their arms like I’d never ditched them all summer. And every time I wanted to write a letter, or every time I felt uncomfortable about the fact that I could see the Thestrals, Flik would send me supportive smiles or distract me as she saw fit._

_And I realized that maybe I still had a sister after all._

I stared at Albus, wondering if he’d think I was a monster. The girl who’d killed people long before she’d bashed in Meg’s stupid face. 

My hands started to shake at some point evidently because suddenly he was reaching down and taking them in his own. He held them tightly as I shook before pulling me into a hug.

I felt quite useless— once again I was having a breakdown at a most inopportune time. How perfectly splendid. 

I leaned against him for a long while, letting him soothingly run his hand up and down my back while the other just held me close to his chest. I buried my face into his shoulder and just breathed into him. He felt _safe._

“I’m sorry,” he said after a long while. “I’m sorry you went through that, any of it. You’re the last person in the world who deserved it.”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “It was my _fault._ ”

He pulled away, resting his hands on my cheeks. “It was an accident. And it’s horrible, but your friends are there for you, I’ve seen that. And you’ll have me now.”

I smiled weakly at that. “Presumptuous, are we?”

“I like to think this has been a real bonding experience,” he said solemnly.

“I could’ve done with some regular ice breakers,” I said wryly, sniffling a little. 

He smirked. “I think the excitement really ups the prospect of what’s to come, to be honest.”

_Woah. There’s a child present, Albus._

I pushed him away gently, smiling a little myself. “We’ll just have to see what happens, I suppose. You know, at a more _convenient_ time.” I nodded over his shoulder. _Catch my gestures here, boy, before I get whiplash._

Understanding crossed his features. “Ah,” he cleared his throat, his smile becoming more cheeky. “Right. We’ll discuss it later, then.” 

“Discuss what?”

_Shut the fuck up, Noah_ , I thought. Or that is, I _thought_ that I thought it. From the way his face fell as Albus moved enough for me to catch sight of the First Year, it seemed that I had _definitely_ spoken aloud. 

_Whoops._

“What’d I say?” he frowned. 

“Nothing,” I shook my head quickly. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap, I’m just a little wound up.”

“Never mind her,” Albus soothed, his hands out toward Noah placatingly. “It’s been a long day for all of us— shit, I’m not even sure what time it is.”

Noah looked slightly appeased. If his bloody hero Albus Potter told him not to mind me, I half-expected that he wouldn’t look my way for the remainder of the day. 

Things could be worse.

“Alright then,” I said, pushing away from the wall. “Let’s get going. We need to get to my bag still. And Noah, I need you to stay quiet when we’re under the cloak, alright? The others might hear us as we get up there.”

He glared at me. “I can be quiet.”

“Well, now’s your chance to prove it.”

I probably shouldn’t have been goading him as much as I was. He was annoying, but otherwise harmless. Er— scratch that, he did kill a bloke. 

This kid was going to need such heavy therapy when this was all over. 

The three of us once again huddled together under the cloak and started back down the hall. Albus took my hand, lacing our fingers together, and I felt calmer than I had in hours. 

The universe works in mysterious ways, doesn’t it? That’s a cliche, but fuck if it isn’t true. For instance, one could be having one of the worst weeks of their life, struggling to remain both alive and sane, when they finally feel like they might _maybe_ have a shot at getting things back on track. 

Maybe, that someone could find their bag of Zonkos products and pull out some _Home-Alone_ -tier tricks that kick the bad guys’ arses, leaving that someone free to shag a hot bloke and pretend she’d never experienced any of this crazy shit. 

_Or,_ maybe that someone could round a corner and run into a murderous sociopath. 

When I say the universe works in mysterious ways, I really mean that the universe is a right _bitch._ In fact the universe can fuck right off and go lick a toilet seat. 

Because that _is_ what happened. 

We rounded a corner. 

And we ran straight into Simon Cook. 

The jolt of the impact was enough to send us stumbling back away from him, but our steps were clumsy in our surprise and terror. Noah’s foot caught on the Invisibility Cloak, pulling it off of us, and the three of us were left facing Cook completely and utterly vulnerable. 

Axe slung over his shoulders, barely having moved despite running into _three_ people, Cook smirked. “Well, well, well. Funny running into you lot.”

Albus and I instinctively moved to turn and run, but Cook reached out and snatched Noah by the collar before he could join us. 

“Not so fast!” He called.

_Shit._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N part 2: I'm sorry it's been so long!!! Inspiration has been limited and I've been hella distracted and unmotivated. I'll work on it XD  
> I hope you otherwise enjoyed though despite the sadboi hours this time around. Let me know what you thought about the whole Julia thing. 
> 
> And pesky Cook is back, of course. What a butt.
> 
> Love you all xoxo


	8. Woah, We Back at the Prologue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OMG HI I KNOW IT'S BEEN FOREVER I'M SORRY OK HERE'S A CHAPTER PLS ENJOY!!!

We’d bought ourselves three steps of distance, but neither Albus nor I could possibly be sadistic enough to leave a kid to Simon Cook, despite all my earlier internal ravings over him. 

“This your pet?” Cook smiled widely. 

_Bet you wouldn’t be smiling so much if you’d seen what happened to your freak girlfriend._

“Let him go,” Albus said carefully. “He’s just a _kid,_ Cook. He doesn’t have to die.”

Cook tilted his head, like he was considering this. “He _doesn’t,_ does he? I guess that’s really up to the two of you.”

“Let me go, wanker!” Noah struggled against Cook’s hold, aiming kicks at the latter. His efforts were futile— Cook was massive, and Noah was a pathetic little peanut. 

“Tell you what,” Cook looked between Albus and me. “Turn yourselves in, come up to the Astronomy tower with me, and I’ll let him go.”

I hadn’t realized my fists were clenched until my palms started to hurt from where the nails dug into the skin. I _hated_ this fucking tosser. 

I couldn’t let him kill Noah. He was just an innocent— er, sort of, I guess— kid. But if we turned ourselves in, _Albus_ would be in as much danger as myself. 

I cared about him too much to let that happen, but I didn’t know what to do. Albus remained equally silent. 

_Is he having the same dilemma?_ I wondered. _Would he say fuck the kid and run away?_

He _was_ a Slytherin. But I still didn’t think he was capable of something like that. 

“How about this,” someone said. _Oh shit, I said that._ I’d hardly given it a thought, but apparently I was desperate enough to make something up on the spot. _Right, eye contact, Mika._ Cook’s eyes were wide and fierce, but not _sharp._ He was obviously still on drugs, predictably, so there was a bit of a glaze there. “Let him go,” I continued, “and I’ll tell you where I last saw Meg.”

I was vaguely aware of Albus shooting me a frantic look, but I remained fixated on the threat. “That’s right,” I went on as coolly as I could manage. “I saw her.”

Cook’s grip on Noah visibly tightened, the latter still thrashing about trying to escape. “ _Where?_ ” Cook demanded, his voice low and tense. 

“Let him go,” I insisted. “Let him go, and I’ll tell you what I know. If you hurt him, I run, and we both know I’m faster.”

His eyes narrowed as he considered my words. I was right, of course. If I took off now, I’d find somewhere to hide and he’d be back to square one. 

Gritting his teeth, and looking rather like he wanted to make me choke on my own entrails, he gradually loosened his grip and released his hold on Noah’s shirt. 

And then, like something beyond my wildest fucking dreams, Noah _bolted._

Everything happened so quickly from there. I couldn’t believe how fast the little fucker was. Cook barely had time to turn around as the kid sprinted off down the hall, but luckily Albus was thinking quickly. He reached down and scooped up the fallen cloak, while I gaped like an idiot, before grabbing my hand and tugging us in the opposite direction. 

Once again, we were running. 

I had no idea where we were planning on going, but we needed to get out of sight so that we could slip under the cloak and hide. 

_Shit, and Noah. We’ll have to find that stupid kid now._

Cook was behind us, his steps loud and thundering, so at least I knew he wasn’t pursuing the eleven-year-old over us. Albus and I continued our escape down the hall in a horrible moment of deja vu. I was getting really sick of all the _running._ Hiding under a cloak, pressed up against Albus Potter, fine. Running in heeled boots? Less tolerable. 

My lungs were screaming at me, _begging_ me to stop, but I couldn’t oblige them just yet. We rounded a corner, and then another. If I hadn’t been living in this castle for six and a half years I would’ve lost track of where we were at all. 

I did take a moment, just briefly, to appreciate my own survival instincts. I’d fought and fled when appropriate. I was _alive._ And that was something I really, really wanted to maintain. 

Naturally, that’s when I ate shit. 

I knew my choice of shoe was going to impede my running ability eventually. 

“Fuck,” I gasped after sliding across the hallway floor. Smooth floors or not, I was going to be bruised to shit. 

Albus skidded to a stop and turned back to me frantically. “Shit,” he cursed, tugging me up quickly. Cook’s footsteps were loud and threatening as he hurried after us. “Come on!”

I ran beside him, wincing with each step. _Why does falling hurt so much more when you’re grown? I fell all the time as a kid and just shook it off!_

_Focus, Mika._

There was no direction or sense to our running anymore. We just _ran_ , full-on Forrest Gumping it down the corridors of Hogwarts while a lunatic with an axe pursued us. I wonder how many more laps across the States Gump could have made if _he’d_ been pursued by a murderer. 

We hit a staircase not long after my fall, and though I was aching and wheezing, I also knew that stairs were our best bet at beating the behemoth that was Simon Cook. He may have been built to javelin-throw a small human across the Atlantic Ocean, but his endurance was rubbish. 

And he was running with a giant _axe_ in his hands, which really seemed to hinder him more than it helped. How many axe killings had he even managed? It couldn’t have been enough to justify keeping it with how many times we’d evaded the fuckhead. 

We continued down the hallway after ascending the stairs, and I realized we were actually on track to reach the Charms classroom if we continued this way. If we could get a little further, out of range enough to throw the Cloak on without him hearing our inevitable panting, then we stood a good chance. 

“Charms,” I managed through my gasps for air. Even getting the one word out felt like a small blessing. 

Albus nodded looking as dead as I felt— well that’s probably an unfair analogy to make after how much _actual_ death we’d witnessed, but the point stands— and we hurried on. 

There was still the problem of the two guys we’d seen by the One-Eyed Witch statue before. They would surely see us hauling ass down the hallway in a manic sprint, and I got the feeling that catching the two of us took precedence over guarding a passageway that only the two of us were supposed to know about. 

“Lose him,” I tried to speak again. “Cloak.”

_You’re on a roll with the English there, Mika. Really, good job._

Albus, thank _Godric,_ seemed to understand once again, as he nodded and slowed his pace a bit. I followed suit until we reached a full stop, pulling over to the side of the corridor and throwing on the Cloak. We stood close together, trying to catch our breath. My lungs were _furious_ with me, the selfish bastards. Cook’s footsteps sounded once again, signaling he was near. 

I clamped my hand over my mouth and nose, my chest heaving. Albus pressed his lips together and turned us so that he was covering me slightly. I would’ve found the gesture sweet if I’d had more time to think about anything other than _Oh fuck, oh shit, he’s coming, fuck, oh Merlin._

Thankfully, Cook passed by us once again, though from the deep scowl on his face and the walking pace he’d settled into, I got the feeling that he knew we’d disappeared on him once again. 

_Get fucked, you stupid pr-_

“OI!”

I flinched against Albus. 

Cook wasn’t shouting at us, though. His body was facing away, toward something down the hall that I couldn’t see without moving out from under my Albus-cocoon, and I wasn’t too keen on doing _that_ just yet. 

“You’re supposed to be guarding the statue!” Cook roared. 

My head whipped back toward Albus as his eyebrows shot up, matching my own surprise. The passage was unguarded?

_Game-changer._

“We’re _trying_ to find the two you keep losing!” Someone shouted back. I tensed; the voice was familiar. 

“That’s not _my_ fault,” Cook snapped. “If I was allowed to bring them in _dead_ then this would have been done ages ago.”

“Take it upstairs! Not our fault you can’t take Potter. Or _Hawke._ ”

 _Why the emphasis on Hawke?_ I wanted to demand. _Sexist fucking murderers, honestly._

“I can take Potter,” Cook growled. “And _Hawke_ is just a lucky little bitch. She’ll slip up soon enough.”

“Did you at least kill that other kid you lost?”

I couldn’t see _who_ it was that Cook was glaring at so furiously, but _Merlin_ if looks could kill, that bloke would have been The Boy Who Died More Times Than Harry Potter. 

“Whatever,” Cook muttered, resting his chin along the blunt top of the axe. “Help me find them, at least.”

Someone snorted. “Well duh. That’s what we’re doing over here after all.”

“Fuck off,” Cook hissed, stomping after the others. 

We waited another few minutes before starting in the same direction they’d retreated down. Albus retracted his arm from where it’d been hovering over my face, his hand having been against the wall by my head. The amount of positions we’d been in the last couple days that would have been so _enjoyable_ in literally _any other scenario_ was getting to be absolutely ridiculous. 

He pulled away, though stayed under the Cloak beside me, and once again we were tiptoeing. The Charms classroom wasn’t far now. We’d made so many attempts to get to this fucking room at this point, I’d nearly forgetten the whole point. My bag, though. That was the goal. 

I wasn’t really sure what’d be of use in there anyway, but it was worth checking. I hoped. 

By what I had to consider a fucking miracle at this point in the break, we actually reached the classroom. With no one in sight or my own earshot, we slipped through the slightly cracked door and gently let it shut. 

We threw off the cloak, finally able to take in some air for a moment. I only allowed myself a few seconds of recuperation before scanning the room for-

 _MY BAG!_ I sighed in relief and ran for it. It was still where I’d left it, on the floor beside the desk I’d sat on during the club meeting. 

It was sort of _weird,_ being in there again. I could practically imagine the room, a day earlier, filled with us innocent— well, you know, mostly innocent— holiday-castle-dwellers looking for a little game to keep from thinking about how alone we were at Christmastime. 

This was not the sort of game I’d imagined. I was very much _over_ this game, in fact. I could really have gone for a referee running in yelling “Timeout!” right about then, actually. And then maybe to just _call the whole fucking game off._

I blinked, shaking away the weirdly surreal memory of how unsuspecting we’d all been just a day prior, in that same room. 

“Mika,” Albus whispered, watching me with apparent concern. 

I took a breath. “It’s fine,” I said, my voice equally hushed. I pulled open the bag to start sifting through its belongings. My Zonko’s products: the exploding whoopee cushion, that weird electric shock thing, the disguise glasses, the dungbombs, and a chocolate frog. 

Okay, so a couple of these were probably useless, but the other stuff could probably actually be of use. I wasn’t sure what use _disguise_ glasses would do, since these cult people seemed a little kill-first-ask-questions-later, and _fine,_ there wasn’t much a chocolate frog could offer us beyond _tasty comfort_ (which is a perfectly valid form of help), but the other things could be viable distractions and tricks to have on hand in case of a fight. 

Still, the idea of fighting Simon Cook still made me want to vomit up my spine and stab myself in the forehead with it. 

There’s a visual for you. 

I placed each belonging back into my pack and slung it over my shoulder. “This should help us,” I whispered. “Shall we carry it back to the Hospital Wing?”

Albus nodded. “Good call.” After a beat, he added, “I’m worried about Noah.”

I huffed. “Me too. Brave, annoying little fucker.” 

He snorted at that— in hindsight, I suppose our real downfall was my hilarity. I’m not sure that Cook would have heard us if I hadn’t made Albus laugh. 

Because moments after said snort, the door to the Charms classroom burst open with a resounding _crash!_ And as the door flung to the side, a large figure stepped inside. 

“Finally,” Cook hissed, axe slung across his shoulders. He wore none of his former mirth, his only clear and visible emotions being pure, unadulterated hatred.

He started toward us with long, purposeful strides. 

Albus turned back toward me, his eyes wide and frantic, and ran. I backed up instinctively, preparing to run too, though I wasn’t sure where he thought we’d go. Cook had us cornered in a classroom with one exit, and said Murder Boy and his trusty sidekick The Big Fucking Axe stood between us and our escape. 

I realized, belatedly, that Albus wasn’t running to get away. He caught up to me in only a few short steps, but evidently he had no intention of making a joint run for our lives. 

Instead, he threw the Invisibility Cloak over me. 

I cried out in protest as he shoved me away from him, and I lifted a hand to tug the Cloak off my head. That _arse_ was not about to take an axe to the face for _my sake!_

Before I could move, however, Albus had yet another surprise up his sleeve. He reached for the nearest chair and swung it back at Cook with full force. Cook stumbled backwards, albeit only a couple steps. He let a growl of frustration before dropping his axe and picking up the very chair that he’d taken shockingly well. 

_Move,_ I screamed at myself. _Help him!_

But my feet wouldn’t budge. I was glued to the floor, frozen in fear. The chair swung forward, and it was like one of those _horrible_ moments where things seem to move in slow-motion. I watched as the chair that hurled toward Albus briefly flickered, and for a moment it _wasn’t_ the chair. 

It was a jar full of some sort of herbs. I watched, paralyzed, as the jar tipped and the herbs spilled. They sprinkled out of the jar gently, like leaves from a tree— an _evil_ tree. A tree of cruelty and injustice and guilt and death and all the _bad_ things. And those leaves, those stupid, _fucking_ herbs floating into that cauldron, bubbling briefly before the room _exploded._

Only, nothing _really_ exploded this time. This time, I simply watched, invisible and voiceless, as the chair broke against Albus Potter, sending him crumpling to the floor. 

Albus lay against the back cupboards along the classroom wall, groaning, while Cook strode forward, still sans-axe. Cook followed the chair before I could recover from my stupor. He yanked Albus up by the arm, the latter once again half-conscious, and dragged him away from where I watched them, moving back toward the exit. 

Cook dropped him back down on the floor, moving to grab his axe. He looked around the room, his eyes narrowed. “I know you’re around here somewhere, bitch.”

_Uhh. Nope, nobody home here, Cook, move along._

“Come on out and I won’t hurt your boy, here,” Cook taunted, swinging the axe around lazily. 

_BULLSHIT!_

“Come on, now,” he goaded. “You wouldn’t want to see precious Potter with his face sliced open, would you?” I resisted the urge to audibly gag, taking some slow steps along the wall, staying up on my toes. My calves were going to be in _phenomenal_ shape by the end of all this. 

I continued to slink along the wall as Cook continued to jeer at the classroom air. Letting my eyes flicker to Albus, I didn’t see any sign that he’d be ready to run if I pulled him up. _Shit._

Cook, meanwhile, had grown seemingly impatient. He turned away from the empty classroom, pausing as he caught sight of the open door he’d left unattended. His frown deepened. “ _Fuck._ ”

 _Oh,_ I realized. _He thinks I slipped out._

I wasn’t sure how he was so impatient that he would just abandon searching the classroom so quickly, but maybe the drugs played a part. Instead, he simply continued to scowl and scooped Albus back up under his arm. Albus hung off of him limply, far more dazed than when Cook’s psycho girlfriend Meg had clubbed him with that trophy. 

He was _really_ taking a beating, bless the poor boy’s soul. 

Cook apparently had no intention of killing Albus yet, or he would have by now. From what we’d heard earlier, whoever had ordered them to keep me alive had decided the same for Albus. The idea only made my stomach squirm, though I was beyond grateful that we were both still alive. I just couldn’t fathom who the hell would have these weirdos out looking for us. 

For the millionth time in only a couple days, I found myself waiting in an empty classroom for Simon Cook to be out of earshot. I realized, too late, that I should have followed them. I didn’t know where he was taking Al. I could only guess at the Astronomy Tower with the others. 

I also still wondered where Noah had run off to. 

I gave my tangled hair a frustrated tug, pulling it out of the band that held it pulled back. It was constricting my head, and life-or-death situations can already be _rather_ headache-inducing. 

_Alright, Mika. You need to move. Head across the castle. Maybe you’ll find Noah, or maybe you’ll figure out a plan for moving on the Astronomy Tower._

I sighed. It was now or never. I was _not_ going to abandon Albus, not after how badly I’d royally fucked up my chance to save him from Cook. Feeling significantly more determined, I stormed out of the room and started back across the castle once more. 

On my walk back, I pondered who I had left to worry about. Obviously Glover was no longer a concern. Meg was _super_ dead. That left Cook, Luke, and those two blokes I’d seen guarding that passage. There was also a boss of some sort, and I had to imagine that they’d have at least one or two other goons with them. At the very least, I figured it wouldn’t hurt if I over-prepared. 

I thought about them, the Zonkos products, Noah, and Albus. There was so much to worry about, and so little time to do so. I needed to come up with a real plan; winging it was not working. I needed a comprehensive order of tasks and a measurable goal— _ugh,_ how Claw of me. 

I hadn’t really _intended_ on returning to the Hospital Wing, but apparently my subconscious was aching to be back in a familiar base of sorts, because before I knew it I was nearing that very part of the castle. By the time I got close enough to see the doorway, I was so lost in my own panic over the bullshit that had become my life that it took me an unreasonable amount of time to notice a rather important detail. 

Someone was standing just outside the entrance. 

I inhaled sharply, halting abruptly. I had enough distance that they didn’t seem to hear my small gasp, but I could definitely make out her face. I couldn’t recall her name, but I’d seen her before. She was a Sixth Year Slytherin, I was pretty sure. Her brother roomed with Louis Weasley and Luke. 

I grimaced to myself. _Okay, Mika, new plan. What’s the thing Al said about life and lemons? Actually, forget that, everything he said about lemons was legitimately barmy and just confused the crap out of Noah and me._

I retreated a few steps before spinning on my toes and making for a different corridor. Yet again, I was stuck wandering Hogwarts with no plan. Only this time, I was utterly alone. 

A chill ran down my spine at the thought, but I shoved my fears aside as best I could. _Have to save Al, have to get out of here, have to survive this shitshow, and really have to take a shower at some point._

And so, as expected, I once more found myself pacing around an empty classroom. 

The room wasn’t far from the hospital wing, but there was enough distance that I could at least _move_ without really having to worry about being heard. 

This part, I’m sure, sounds familiar. 

The pacing continued, while I panicked internally. 

The sound of footsteps followed. 

And the voices. Arse #1 and Arse #2 invading my quiet space with their general arse-ness. 

Colton Moore and Ben Creevey, Seventh Year Gryffindors, burst into the classroom. _First Luke, now them? For fuck’s sake, the only Gryffindor bloke left is—_

I paused, not willing to finish that thought. It wasn’t one worth entertaining. 

Of course, the arses revealed that Albus was being held in the library, so for a brief recap: I made my way there, sacrificed my beautiful boots, found Albus looking weirdly sexy tied up and bloody in his chair, _yadda yadda yadda,_ and was in the process of freeing him. 

“Mika,” Albus said quietly. “I need to tell you something.”

“It’ll have to wait,” I said as I held the small flame to the ropes. It burned them, but it was working far slower than I would have liked. 

“You’re going to want to hear it,” he said, looking worried. 

“Not now, Al,” I shook my head. “Come on, rope, burn faster.”

“ _Mika,_ ” he insisted. 

I glared at him. “Would you shut it and let me save you?” To my relief, the rope burned away from his wrist. I quickly moved to the other side. 

He looked frustrated. “You need to know-”

His words were cut off as we heard the distinct sound of shouting coming from not too far away, probably from just outside the library.

“Shit,” I cursed, waving the flame desperately. It was so close, just hanging by threads. 

“Fuck it,” Albus muttered, and drew his arm up aggressively. He pulled through a few of the threads, though it must have hurt, because he hissed slightly. Still, this was life-or-death, so he pulled again, and then his arm was free. He went to work on one of the ropes around his left leg while I started burning away the one on the right. 

“You know, any other day I would have loved to have you kneeling in front of me while I sit tied up in a chair,” he mused. 

I resisted the urge to punch him in the dick, instead pulling at the rope as more strands gave away under the fire. 

A large _bang_ startled us both. 

“Oh gods, that’s the whoopie cushion,” I whispered sharply, pulling at the ropes persistently. 

“ _Whoopie cushion?_ ”

“No time,” I said frantically. He was nearly free, so close now. 

He’d gotten the knot on his left side undone. _One more, just one more._

Part of me wanted to tell him that I had reason to suspect his cousin was actually an important part of all this madness, but I just didn’t have the heart. Instead, I simply continued to burn away the rope. 

Something a lot of people don’t know about me is that I’ve always been particularly interested in Muggle science. This sounds unrelated, I know, but bear with me. 

In ecology, there’s a concept called a carrying capacity. This means that every ecosystem has a certain population it can sustain, and that at some point, a population must cease its exponential growth upon reaching that point. The growth levels out, forming this “S” sort of curve on a graph, and the population in many cases will drop if it pushes that capacity. 

It’s not that different from the statistics concept “Regression to the Mean.” When something veers away from what’s normal, it’s inevitably shoved back into a more average position. 

My life’s average, over those couple of days, had become absolutely _shit._ I’d been slowly learning to accept that. I didn’t know how long I’d be spending my time fighting against lunatic murderers, or whether I’d see my friends and family again. The simple act of survival was proving to be exhausting, both mentally and physically, but that had evidently become my new norm. To be candid, it’d been that way since Julia died in that lab all those months before. 

So really, what I’m getting at, is that my life was seemingly _meant_ to be absolute crap. And therefore, when it seemed like I actually had a chance of something _good,_ like freeing Albus and escaping with him before Cook could recover from the Whoopie-Cushion-Explosion and before the other nutters out there could find us, I really should have _expected_ that things were going to go wrong. 

My life, apparently, had a very short carrying capacity for good. And therefore, the universe felt obligated to send me right back to the mean. 

That horrible, fucked up, _cruel_ mean. 

Because just as I finished getting through the last of Albus’s rope, a voice sounded from behind me. 

“Hey Mika.”

_No._

The sickening pool of dread that followed wasn’t unlike what I’d felt in my dream the night before; I could practically picture the crumpling trees and the raining blood. 

Reluctantly, I turned, meeting the scornful and— dare I say it— _droll_ expression, of one Flik Corner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oops. 
> 
> Ok this probably wasn't that hard to guess at over the last chapter.   
> Also I'm so sorry for these long waits between updates, life has gotten CRAZY and there's the whole mental health being shit thing to deal with and my job has been so busy and just... I dunno, man. Life. 
> 
> Anyway, ANOTHER CLIFFHANGER CAUSE THAT'S APPARENTLY ALL I CAN DO! I'M SORRY!!!!
> 
> Let me know what you thought :D Hope you enjoyed xoxo


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